Remember Larry “Pants on the Ground” Platt from the Atlanta American Idol auditions? I know, who could forget the 62-year-old who won over the judges and made #pantsontheground the number one trending topic on Twitter the entire following day? Well, it turns out he’s a crusader for more than just belts (his compelling song about saggy pants, you’ll remember from the video of his audition we posted, made Simon announce he was off to buy immediately after Platt’s now-infamous audition). The self-proclaimed “General” marched alongside Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. during the civil rights movement in the early 1960s.
Across Atlanta’s American Idol Buzz blog was able to score the first interview with the General to talk to him about his interesting background. First and foremost, they asked why he calls himself a general when he never served in the military. “I’m a general of the civil rights movement,” Platt told the blog. Platt credits civil rights leader Reverand William Hosea with coining the nickname. Ho and his colleague did some fact-checking on Platt’s claims, and there is photographic evidence of the General’s participation in the civil rights movement. If you look at the photograph on the homepage of the Civil Rights Veterans Movement, the young man on the left is actually Larry Platt at the age of 16. Platt also marched with Dr. King in the famous “Bloody Sunday” Selma-to-Montgomery civil rights march, and shared his memories about the crusade in a panel discussion at an Atlanta library in 2008.
So how does Platt spend his time these days when he’s not writing catchy rap ditties that teach helpful life lessons and lend themselves to hundreds of YouTube remixes? “Platt said he likes to talk to government officials about helping the downtrodden, the poor, the homeless. ‘I like to help keep people from being dominated. This should be a civilized state. Everyone should be treated equal,’” he tells Across Atlanta. And the General isn’t just a hero in his own mind, he’s a bona fide American idol already. According to Yahoo’s Reality Bites blog, “[Platt] was even honored with his own holiday in Atlanta, Larry Platt Day, on September 4, 2001, for his ‘priceless and immeasurable contributions to society’ and ‘his great energy and commitment to equality and the protection of the innocent and for his outstanding service to the Atlanta community and the citizens of Georgia.’”
Larry “The General” Platt could not be having his 15 minutes of fame during a more appropriate time. He will be appearing on The View on Martin Luther King Day on Monday, where he will undoubtedly share his memories of his time with the great civil rights leader. As for Platt, his Idol dreams will unfortunately never come true since, at 62, he’s more than three decades over the competition’s age limit of 28. Even if he isn’t this season’s American Idol, Larry “Pants on the Ground” Platt has an infinitely more valuable place in our nation’s history than the winner of this season’s competition: he is an actual American icon.
Screengrab courtesy of YouTube
