From the SF Gate

A bid to hang Coretta Scott King’s portrait in the state Capitol died in committee Wednesday, with the chief supporter comparing the failure to Don Imus’ slur against the Rutgers University women’s basketball team.

The resolution would have urged the Capitol Standards Arts Commission to hang the portrait next to a picture of her late husband, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., but the three-member House Special Rules Committee declined to move the proposal Wednesday.

“It’s just like calling Mrs. King a nappy-headed (N-word),” state Rep. Roberta Abdul-Salaam, told reporters after the hearing.

“It’s another example of blatant disrespect for black women in 2007,” said Abdul-Salaam, a Democrat. “It’s worse than what Don Imus did.”

Members of the committee did not immediately return calls for comment.

Imus has been suspended from his radio show for two weeks after referring to the Rutgers’ players as “nappy-headed hos” on April 4. The shock jock has apologized but the public outcry has prompted some major sponsors to pull their advertising from his show.

Abdul-Salaam said she will ask Gov. Sonny Perdue to issue an executive order to hang King’s portrait in the Capitol, but Perdue spokesman Dan McLagan said Abdul-Salaam should direct her request to the commission.

Abdul-Salaam said she also has been stymied in efforts to designate Mrs. King’s birthday as a state holiday.

“I’m saddened,” she said.

Roberta Abdul-Salaam does Mrs. King a disservice by opening her ignorant mouth on this subject. Mrs. King is a good woman, and her husband was a great man, but that alone does not require her to be honored with a portrait and a State holiday.

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Politics