Newspaper Page Text
King family plans marketing options
to protect memory of civil rights leader
“There are so many mil
lions of people that re
spected Martin Luther
King that would want
some mementoof what he
stood for.”
—Kenneth L. Bernhardt,
Marketing department
chairman at Georgia
State University
By Marc¢ Rice
AP Business Writer
ATLANTA
With plans for an interactive
museum and journeys to
Graceland formarketing tips, the
heirs of Martin Luther King Jr.
appear eager to step up the sell
ing of his memory.
Marketing experts and those
who have had contact with the
King family say the moves are
driven by a desire to control how
King’s message is disseminated
as well as by profit.
And they caution that market
ing the image of one so revered
carries many pitfalls and re
quires a great deal of delicacy.
“There are so many millions of
people that respected Martin
Luther King that would want
some memento of what he stood
Smithsonian exhibit commemorates
Smithsonian Exhibit
“Birthplace of a
Whirlwood:
The 1960 Greensboro
Sit-In”
By Darlene Superville
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON
Franklin McCain, Jibreel
Khazan and Joseph McNeil re
turned Saturday to the
Woolworth’s lunch counter where
they were refused service in 1960
for being black.
They weren’t served this time
either, but that didn’t matter.
The three men came to com
memoratetheirsit-in atthe lunch
counter 35 years ago. As college
freshmen in Greensboro, N.C.,
they sparked a civil rights tactic
that challenged racial inequali
ty in the South and eventually
earned blacks the right to be
treated equal to whites.
“It was the kind of thing where
you could be served at 12
counters, but Number 13 was
off-limits,” McCain said Satur
day, as an 8-foot section of the
historic Woolworth’s lunch
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for,” said Kenneth L. Bernhardt,
marketing department chairman
at Georgia State University.
“The danger is in trivializing
the person and his accomplish
ments,” he said.
King, a Baptist minister who
helped lead a national fight for
blacks’ civil rights in the 19605,
was assassinated April 4, 1968,
in Memphis, Tenn. He would
have been 66 on Sunday. The
national holiday commemorat
ing King’s birth was celebrated
for the first time Jan. 20, 1986.
While the nation observes his
birthday on Monday, the Kings
are moving on several fronts.
The estate recently gave the
jobofhandling licensing requests
to Atlanta-based Intellectual
Properties Management.
Dexter King, King’s youngest
son and head of the King Center
in Atlanta, has met twice with
the caretakers of Elvis Presley’s
image. And the family has been
in a well-publicized battle with
the National Park Service over
rival plans for a tourist attrac
tioninAtlanta, King’s hometown.
The Wall Street Journal re
ported last week that King has
discussed a possible motion pic
ture, video projects and merchan
dising of other products with
Turner Broadcasting System Inc.
and Time Warner Inc. The com
panies would not confirm the
talks.
Dexter King and his longtime
counter and related items went
on display at the Smithsonian
Institution’s National Museum
of American History.
“It’s a thrill to be able to live to
see the results of our actions as
young people 35 years ago,” said
Khazan, named Ezell Blair at
the time. “We were playing with
social, political, economic and
religious dynamite.”
On Feb. 1, 1960, in a South
that segregated blacks and
whites in public accommodations
such as restaurants, hotels and
restrooms, four North Carolina
A&T State University freshmen
decided to go to Woolworth’s.
Blacks shopped regularly at
the five-and-dime, and McCain
recalled buying composition note
books and ballpoint pens on the
day that would later be regarded
as historic. :
Although blacks were served
at the carry-out section of the
Woolworth’s lunch counter, they
were not allowed to stop there
and eat with whites.
McCain, McNeil, Khazan and
the fourth student, David Rich
mond, sat at the counter and
politely asked to be served. Re
buffed, they did not leave, but
sat there all day, unserved, talk
ing among t%emselves.
At closing time, they left.
By the time they returned to
campus, word had spread.
~m":"
friend Phillip Jones, who heads
Intellectual Properties, did not
respond to requests to be inter
viewed for this story.
But Jack Soden, chief execu
tive officer of Elvis Presley En
terprises Inc. in Memphis, con
firmed that King had sought ad
vice about marketing and licens
ing.
“There’s a distinct difference
in the role Martin Luther King
played in society and Elvis the
entertainer,” Soden said. “But
the basic mechanisms of protect
ing, guarding and nurturing the
value of the name, image and
likeness are the same.”
Inthe nearly 27 years since his
death, King’s words and achieve
ments have become ingrained in
the nation’s culture. But while
the estate charges a royalty fee
for printing the text of King’s
speeches, the commercial aspects
of his legacy have not been ex
tensively pursued.
The gift shop at the King Cen
ter, the complex founded by his
widow to promote King’s philos
ophy of nonviolent social change,
features mostly educational
items: books, audiotapes of his
speeches, posters, along with a
modest selection of T-shirts, pins
and other memorabiiia. The
flashiest merchandise includes
a plastic drinking bottle embla
zoned with King's words and a
set of trading cards chronicling
his life.
About 20 students showed up
at Woolworth’s the next day, 80
on the day after. Before week’s
end, hundreds of protesters had
appeared, including whites from
the Women's College of the Uni
versity of North Carolina.
Sit-ins spread to other down
town eateries, and to hundreds
of Southern cities. Feeling an
economic pinch from the boycotts,
Woolworth’s and other stores in
Greensboro desegregated their
counters on July 25, 1960.
Woolworth’s closed the Greens
boro store in January 1994 and
donated the section of the
counter, four stools, a pie case
and other items to the
Smithsonian. A local group wants
to convert the original store into
a civil rights museum and open
the counter for business again.
The Smithsonian exhibit,
“Birthplace of a Whirlwind: The
1960 Greensboro Sit-In,” com
memorates the 35th anniversa
ry of the event and the memory
of Martin Luther King Jr. It will
remain open to the public for at
least six months.
McCain, Khazan and McNeil
stepped into the display to pose
for photos Saturday, but didn’t
retake their seats for fear of dis
turbingthe setup. Richmond died
several years ago of cancer.
Alarge mirror on the wall faced
the counter, on which the pie
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“We don't do shot glasses, ash
trays, things like that,” said Su
san Stainrod, who manages the
gift shop. “Even though people
request it all the time.”
Ms. Stainrod would not dis
close sales revenue for the shop.
Despite high regard for King
(he won the 1964 Nobel Peace
Prize and his was the first na
tional holiday specifically honor
ing either a clergyman or an Af
rican American), merchandise
bearing his image carries no
guarantee of strong sales, as The
Franklin Mint found out.
The makerof collectibles, based
inFranklin Center, Pa., last year
featured a commemorative King
plate but stopped after four
months of weak sales, said Jack
Wilkie, vice president for com
munications and marketing.
“We had higher hopes for the
program,”said Wilkie, who would
not divulge sales figures.
Wilkie said the challenge of his
business is to find images that
people want to display or give as
gifts.
“People purchase things that
remind them of pleasant times...
a popular TV series they recall
from their youth, the Three
Stooges,” he said. “Despite
(King’s) great leadership and vi
sion, the pain of his death may be
too much for people to look at
every day.”
case rested. Signs above the mir
ror advertised: “Delicious Straw
berry Ice Cream Shortcake, 29
cents,” and “Super Jumbo Ba
nana Spli, 39 cents.”
Less than five years before the
sit-in at Woolworth’s, the Mont
gomery, Ala. bus boycott was
born Dec. 1, 1955, when Rosa
Parks refused to give up her seat
on a bus. That decision, in turn,
boosted to prominence Martin
Luther King Jr., a Baptist minis
ter who emerged as the leader of
the civil rights movement.
King’s birthday is celebrated
asanational holiday on Monday.
McCain, a corporate manager
in Charlotte, N.C.; Khazan, a
teacher and counselor in New
Bedford, Mass.; and McNeil said
the exhibit and their action de
cades ago should inspire young
people to fight for their beliefs,
even if they have to wage the
struggle alone.
“Wewere students, but we were
leadersin the sensethat we made
things happen, and they can do
that, too,” said McNeil, an Air
Force commander and employee
ofthe Federal Aviation Adminis
tration in New York.
“There are things in life that
should be principled actions and
when that principle is strong
enough, you need to take a stand
and persist,” he added. “Man is
capable of change.”
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