(WBBM Newsradio) -- One of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s old friends says it’s time for a change at the Illinois state capital.
Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White on Tuesday said the civil-rights icon deserves a Springfield statue that is distinctive.
“When you see the Lincoln statue, you know that’s Abe,” White said. “But when you see this statue, it doesn’t look like Dr. King.”
The 300-pound bronze statue of MLK was unveiled in January 1988, according to the tourism website Visit Springfield Illinois. The statue depicts King as a younger man in his twenties, the site says.
The highly stylized statue features an unusual pose of King with his tie loosened and his suit jacket over his shoulder, as if he were walking home after a hard day's work.
White said that’s not how he remembers King, having seen him at least 50 times.
“I was a student at Alabama State College, and I’ve never seen him with his jacket slung over his shoulder," he said.
White said he'd like to see a bigger, better statue of MLK in a more prominent spot.
The secretary declined to weigh in on the debate over removing statues or renaming schools and the like. Stephen Douglas and Pierre Menard have been booted from the Illinois Capitol because of their connections to slavery.