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Mix-up has plaque
honoring accused MLK killer instead of black actor
By Dwayne Campbell
Sun-Sentinel
Posted January 15 2002
LAUDERHILL -- The plaque stated, “Thank you James Earl Ray
for keeping the dream alive.” But the name should have been “James
Earl Jones,” the Tony Award-winning actor and voice of Star
Wars’ Darth Vader, The Lion King’s Mufasa and
CNN.
The plaque was intended as a gift from the city of
Lauderhill to Jones, who will be the featured speaker at the city’s
annual Martin Luther King celebration Saturday. James Earl Ray shot
and killed King in 1968.
Members of the city’s
Martin Luther King task force had asked the Lauderhill-based Adpro
to produce the plaque but later agreed with the company that Jones
deserved something unique. Adpro found the answer in a plaque with
collectible African-American stamps available from Merit Industries
of Georgetown, Texas.
The companies struck a deal. All Adpro
had to do was choose from a list of stamps and fax the name and
script needed on the plaque to the Texas company.
Then the
package arrived.
“It had an immediate chill. It was eerie,”
said Adpro owner Gerald Wilcox, 43, as he showed the plaque that, he
said, “deeply hurt.”
Wilcox, who 10 years ago founded Adpro
to produce advertising and promotional items, is having a hard time
understanding the mix-up. He still asks himself how someone could
confuse Jones, the celebrated actor and pitchman known for his
one-of-a kind voice, with Ray, the man who shot and killed King at
the Lorraine Motel in Memphis.
Ray pleaded guilty to the
crime in 1969, but debate over conspiracy theories and possible
government involvement lives on. Ray later recanted his story; he
was serving a 99-year prison sentence when he died in 1998. King
would have been 73 this month.
The case of the terribly wrong
name is also fueling conspiracy theories. Gerald Wilcox said he knew
the error didn’t come from his company, but he sent a company
secretary scurrying through order forms — just to be
sure.
“In all my communications with the vendor, I never used
[James Earl Ray]. I almost fell off my chair when I saw it,” said
Norbert Williams, 68, a former middle school principal who is an
Adpro account executive. The evidence pointed to Georgetown,
Texas.
Merit Industries’ creation, intended for Jones and for
which the city is spending about $200, features a 15-cent stamp of
King and stamps of six other famous African-Americans. The six
include Harriet Tubman, W.E.B. DuBois and Paul Laurence Dunbar.
Merit had faxed Adpro a list of 15 African-American stamps to choose
from, and a rough sketch of what the finished product would look
like.
The plaque arrived Monday and, even without seeing it,
Lauderhill officials were incensed.
“It’s a real outrage,”
said Commissioner Margaret Bates, who also chairs the city’s Martin
Luther King task force. “To confuse James Earl Jones with James Earl
Ray … just think of the significance.”
Even with his doubts,
Wilcox said he was willing to call it an error but wanted Merit
executives to tell him what happened. He said the first phone
conversation broke down when a Merit employee became uncooperative
and cut the call short. On a second try, Gerald Wilcox talked to the
owner, Herbert Miller.
“I explained to him why this was so
important. He said I was making a mountain out of a mole hill,”
Wilcox said. “They had no sense of history. First I was stunned,
then the anger kicked in.”
On Tuesday, Merit’s Miller called
the mistake not a “slur” but a “copy error.”
“We have a lot
of people who don’t speak English. Accidentally, one of the girls
who doesn’t know James Earl Jones from a man on the moon
accidentally typed James Earl Ray,” said Miller, who offered to
correct the plaque.
Wilcox accused the Texas company of being
“culturally insensitive” and is having the damage repaired locally
so it will be ready for Saturday.
Some Lauderhill officials
say it’s best to move forward because they may never know the truth
behind the name switch. Jones will speak to youngsters at the Boys
& Girls Club at 1 p.m. Saturday before attending a 7 p.m.
reception at Inverrary Country Club.
“I’d like to think it
was a mistake,” said Irvin Kiffin, the city’s parks director. “But
if it wasn’t, Dr. King taught us how to be strong.”
Dwayne
Campbell can be reached at dcampbell@sun-sentinel.com or
954-572-2004. |
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Copyright © 2002, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
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