Overview

MLK Fortnite March Through Time refers to the in-game event within the battle royale video game Fortnite where players get to go to a special zone dedicated to Martin Luther King Jr.'s march for justice civil rights campaign. The event is part of a collaboration between Epic Games and Time magazine, which was launched in late August 2021.

Background

On August 26th, 2021, it was announced that TIME Magazine was partnering with Epic Games on an MLK-themed Fortnite event in-game for players to tour events surrounding MLK's march for civil rights. The event, which was announced on Twitter^[1] via Playstation's official account. The post received 16,000 likes, 20,000 quote tweets and 3,000 replies in 48 hours technically making it a ratioed tweet (shown below).

The event went live later that day, with players able to sign in and post screenshots on social media of their experiences. One of the most shared screenshots^[2] was of the bathroom, where historically accurate segregated sinks could be found. The seriousness of the period piece contrasted with the visuals of Fortnite and a Rick Sanchez avatar from Rick and Morty proved to be too surreal for people, as the tweet received 4,500 likes and 1,100 retweets in less than 48 hours (shown below).

Online Reactions

The online reaction to the event was largely confusion mixed with skepticism and indignation. Many people likened the event to when artist David Guetta did a shout-out to George Floyd before dropping some beats in the wake of his death, as seen in the tweet by Twitter^[3] user @GalaxyPeaBrain (shown below).

MLK_Fortnite_Battle_Pass.mp4pic.twitter.com/1O7yt3amzD

— Isaac (@GalaxyPeaBrain) August 26, 2021

Others were posting their indignation at the work and death of MLK being used for a Fortnite publicity stunt via ironic and not serious threats being posted, as is the case in the tweet by Twitter^[4] user @ChasmRift, which received over 200 likes in less than 48 hours (shown below).

Unsurprisingly, there were concerns over the character's being able to emote within the event. This is due to something that happened in the Black Lives Matter event previously. In that event, players were able to throw tomatoes at the screen, showing their disrespect and displeasure at it. This was touched on by Twitter^[5] user @Stutterbox21 on August 26th, 2021, receiving 380 likes for his observation in roughly 48 hours (shown below).

The event was later besieged by players giving lapdances as Ariana Grande and flossing as various other characters, similar to the BLM event. This caused Epic Games to remove emotes from the event, except for certain ones that couldn't be disabled. Among those emotes that couldn't be removed was the whipcrack effect from the DC Comics Catwoman skin, as noted in a tweet by Twitter^[6] user @Win98Tech, receiving 12,000 likes in 24 hours (shown below).

Search Interest

External References