‘Gross and Disrespectful’: Atlanta-Area Restaurant Slammed for Using Shocking Explicit MLK Jr. and Rosa Parks Image to Promote Event, Sparks Outrage and Calls for Shutdown

An Ethiopian restaurant just outside of Atlanta has distanced itself from a flyer commemorating the upcoming Martin Luther King Jr. holiday by disrespecting the martyred hero and another iconic civil rights figure with a digitally altered image that could result in serious legal issues for the flyer’s creator.Atlanta entrepreneur Arthur Watkins Jr. posed the image, showing King and Rosa Parks dressed in revealing, modern outfits while apparently engaged in a sex act. He also sent an email to King’s daughter, Bernice King, CEO of Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, urging her to take action and prevent “further misuse” by the restaurant, Mela ATL. Mela Restaurant & Lounge is facing backlash for a promotional flyer that has a vulgar image of Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. (Photos: Getty Images/Instagram)“The use of his likeness in this context is deeply disrespectful and warrants attention,” Watkins wrote. “Dr. King’s legacy is one of dignity, justice, and equality, and we must all work to protect it.”While King is a public figure and his image can be used freely for nonprofit remembrances on, for example, Instagram or church bulletin boards, commercial use of King’s image requires permission from the King...