The Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Non-violent Social Change, founded by his widow Coretta Scott King and chaired by their second son Dexter Scott King, closely guards the copyrights, licensing fees and other rights over the slain civil rights leader's speeches and writings. In 1997 they struck a multimillion-dollar deal with AOL Time Warner Inc. to produce recordings and books of his speeches and writings. All of this protectiveness serves a good cause, the King family assures us. Proceeds go to help support the King center, they say. Besides, they insist, the family can help King's message reach a larger audience.
All icons are vulnerable to commercialization.
Look at the way Presidents' Day has become synonymous with post-Christmas clearance sales. Look at the way Christmas and Easter have become occasions for feverish shopping and buying. Hardly a peep of protest has been heard more recently as the sounds of Jimi Hendrix and other '60s rockers are used to sell cars and other products. It is not that hard to imagine King's most famous sound bites similarly morphed into future ad campaigns.