Martin Luther King's son defends controversial new headless statue - BBC

The lad of civilian rights leaders Dr Martin Luther King Jr and Coretta Scott King has defended a caller monument to honour his parents aft the artwork faced mounting disapproval and mockery.

The 20-foot (6m) gangly and 40-foot (12m) wide statue, called "The Embrace" was unveiled connected Friday successful Boston.

It marks Dr King and Coretta Scott King's hug aft helium won the Nobel Peace Prize successful 1964.

Shortly aft it was unveiled, galore took to societal media to mock it.

Some, including relatives of King, made jokes astir the sculpture - which features the couple's arms and not their heads - resembling a enactment act.

Seneca Scott, a relative of Coretta Scott King, argued the statue - created by New York creator Hank Willis Thomas to beryllium successful Boston Common, the oldest nationalist parkland successful the US - was "insulting" to his family.

"Ten cardinal dollars were wasted to make a masturbatory metallic homage to my legendary household members—one of the all-time top American families," Scott wrote successful an essay for Compact Magazine.

But Martin Luther King III, the eldest lad of Coretta Scott King and Dr King, told CNN connected Monday helium enjoyed the sculpture.

"I deliberation that's a immense practice of bringing radical together," helium said. "I deliberation the creator did a large job. I'm satisfied."

His comments came aft galore argued the determination to permission retired King and Scott King's faces from the $10m (£8.1m) sculpture was not lone disrespectful, but visually unattractive.

Boston Herald columnist Rasheed Walters called the statue "aesthetically unpleasant" and a "huge plaything and miss successful honouring the Dr & Mrs King", successful a tweet past week.

King III told CNN adjacent though the sculpture did not person "mom and dad's images," it represents "something that brings radical together", helium said.

"And successful this time, time and age, erstwhile there's truthful overmuch division, we request symbols that speech astir bringing america together," helium added.