The 22-foot bronze statue, meant to honor the relationship between King and his wife Coretta, faced backlash after the public commented on the posture.
The Hank Willis Thomas sculpture made waves and found the cousin of Coretta Scott King—Seneca Scott delivering harsh words for the art. During an essay written for Compact, Seneca Scott said, “Ten million dollars were wasted to create a masturbatory metal homage to my legendary family members — one of the all-time greatest American families. How could anyone fail to see that this … brings very few, if any, tangible benefits to struggling black families?”