Angry Black Statue Given Smiley Face

The statue of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. pictured on the left was a little, well, "confrontational" and communist looking (??) for the U.S. Commission On Fine Arts, which approves monuments on the National Mall in Washington DC. So the Chinese sculptor who carved the 28-foot memorial gave the civil rights leader a face lift, softening his brow and turning up his lips "to resemble the hint of a smile," in the words of AP. Now tourists will be spared the apparently undesirable site of an angry-looking black men, and the commissioners indicated yesterday they are happy. The foundation responsible for making the statue refused to release a before/after picture, but Rick McKay of Cox managed to snap the above photo, which ran in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. [AP]