Lawmaker Says Failure To Put Coretta Scott King Portrait In Ga. Capitol Worse Than Imus Slur

A bid to hang Coretta Scott King’s portrait in the state Capitol died in a legislative committee Wednesday, with the chief supporter comparing the failure to Don Imus’ slur against the Rutgers University women’s basketball team.

The resolution would have urged the Capitol Standards Arts Commission to hang the portrait next to a picture of her late husband, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., but the three-member House Special Rules Committee declined to move the proposal forward Wednesday.

“It’s just like calling Mrs. King a nappy-headed (N-word),” state Rep. Roberta Abdul-Salaam, told reporters after the hearing.

“It’s another example of blatant disrespect for black women in 2007,” said Abdul-Salaam, a Democrat. “It’s worse than what Don Imus did.”

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Abdul-Salaam said she will ask Gov. Sonny Perdue to issue an executive order to hang King’s portrait in the Capitol. Perdue spokesman Dan McLagan said Abdul-Salaam should direct her request to the commission.

“I’m saddened,” said Abdul-Salaam, who said she also had been stymied in efforts to designate Mrs. King’s birthday as a state holiday.

Rep. Calvin Hill, the committee’s Republican chairman, called Abdul-Salaam’s comments an “overreaction.”

“Mrs. King certainly is a wonderful humanitarian . . . but this is not a museum,” he said. “She deserves to be recognized, but perhaps not on the grounds of the Capitol.”

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