Pastor, leader, husband, hero, King. Martin Luther King has become a legend and icon to generations of African Americans and all racial freedom advocates. His timeless writings about non-violent demonstration and leadership strategy should be required reading for all Americans. His messages of freedom, justice and civil rights are timeless. My icon image of MLK illustrates the potent positives of his life and the desperate sadness in equal measure, as a playing card.
His short life was filled with both triumphs and catastrophes. My image of MLK includes the stellar achievement of the 5 day, 54-mile march from Selma, Alabama to Montgomery, the state capitol, across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, demonstrating for voting rights. His image is prayerful as he stopped the march on the bridge to pray. He is watched over by his brave and supportive wife, Coretta Scott King. She represents the Statue of Liberty, the image of freedom and equality. The American flag fills the sky with a hovering peace dove baring an olive branch for hope and promise, as the dove that retuned to Noah’s arc after 40 days of flood.
The tragic image of MLK commemorates the 29 times he was arrested and jailed for disobeying police orders. Many of his most memorable writings were done in jail. His followers were not always in agreement with his non-violent demonstration tactics. As progress was slow or full of false promises, factions within King’s organization began to protect themselves. Martin’s rally in Raleigh NC Reynolds Coliseum was followed by a counter-protest by the Ku Klux Klan. The situation became life threatening for many.
Martin Luther King was assassinated in 1968 in Memphis, TN. Everyone that was alive then, remembers where they were when the King was shot.
