Sunday, January 16, 2011

The Box challenge - Martin Luther King


Martin Luther King's,"Stride Toward Freedom"1958, inscribed

"...To my first teacher, Mrs Rebecca Dickinson.."

, signed in a beautiful calligraphic hand.

It was the first of king's book, documenting Montgomery bus boycott, and violence, and threats faced down by King,  Abernathy,  and other civil rights leaders, in the wake of the Rosa Parks incident.It is a critical document, which chronicles the beginning of a movement that changed the world, and made a real difference in the lives of all black americans.

Stencils of iconic images of King from the library of congress, as back-pared onlays,  together with regular onlays of black circles.Four onlays have been printed from half-tones. The stencil made on the front is from famous photograph of king with LBJ in the backround, both men appearing visibly frustrated. The second image on the spine is, of course,  from the March on Washington, where he delivered his famous "I have a dream ..." speech.

The closing lines from the book...

"In a day when Sputniks and Explorers dash through outer space and guided ballistic missiles are carving highways of death through the stratosphere, nobody can win a war.  Today the choice is no longer between violence and nonviolence.  It is either nonviolence or nonexistence.....
....The eternal appeal takes the form of a warning : "All who take the sword will perish by the sword.".."

I've always been struck by his prophetic words, delivered in what is now referred to as the Mountaintop speech, April 3rd 1968  "...I have seen the promise land,  I may not get there with you..."
The very day before he was assinated.


the speech


Happy birthday Martin Luther King.

3 comments:

Abby said...

Well done, Gavin. Elegant solution.

Maggie said...

Beautifully done, as usual. That quotation is a great one, too.

Paper dragon books said...

@abby..got there in the end
@maggie, hey there thanks as ever for your encouraging words...
happy mlk day