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Martin Luther King Jr. Day | Honouring the American Civil Rights Leader
Today’s featured artwork “Riot” by Russell Young is based on Martin Luther King Jr’s speech “The Other America” (1967)
“And I must say tonight that a riot is the language of the unheard.” — Martin Luther King Jr.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. What does this powerful image say to you?
On August 28, 1963, some 100 years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation freeing the slaves, a young man named Martin Luther King climbed the marble steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. to describe his vision of America. More than 200,000 people-black and white-came to listen. They came by plane, by car, by bus, by train, and by foot. They came to Washington to demand equal rights for black people. And the dream that they heard on the steps of the Monument became the dream of a generation.
“I still have a dream, a dream deeply rooted in the American dream — one day this nation will rise up and live up to its creed, ‘We hold these truths to be self evident: that all men are created equal.’” ~ Martin Luther King Jr.
