Committee reviewing statues on the Capitol grounds discusses Martin Luther King, Jr.

Posted on June 9, 2021
The Martin Luther King, Jr. statue is across the street from the Illinois Capitol. (Dave Dahl/WJBC)

By Dave Dahl

SPRINGFIELD – The task force examining statues around the state Capitol heard Wednesday about Martin Luther King, Jr.

The King statue is across the street from the Capitol. With tie loosened and jack over his shoulder, “That didn’t look like him,” said Secretary of State Jesse White, who knew King during White’s college days in Alabama. The statue makes King, White said, “look like a sharecropper. Dr. King was a dapper fellow and always had a suit and a tie on.”

White is advocating for a new, more dignified statue to be placed right on the Capitol lawn.

Because of the national reckoning over figures connected to slavery, Stephen Douglas and Pierre Menard have already been booted off the lawn.

Dave Dahl can be reached at [email protected]

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