The March on Washington yesterday began our 50th anniversary commemoration of the 1963 March on Washington that culminated in Martin Luther King, Jr’s. “I Have a Dream” speech. This coming Wednesday, the precise anniversary of the original march, President Obama will address the nation from the Lincoln Memorial. Barack Obama will be standing on the same spot from which King’s speech convinced our lawmakers to pass the Civil Rights Act (1964) and the Voting Rights Act (1965).
Today, we find ourselves slipping backwards in regard to these areas of social equality, and our voting rights are under great threat (thanks to an unconscionably flawed decision by our Supreme Court). At the same time, these past fifty years have not seen great strides in the area of jobs, especially considering that the official name for the 1963 event was “The March for Jobs and Freedom.”The following photographs augment yesterday’s march and the events that will culminate in President Obama’s Wednesday address. They reveal the overarching issue of civil rights as treated by the famous American artist and illustrator, Norman Rockwell (who lived in Massachusetts), as seen in some of the displays of the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee (now under renovation, so inaccessible), and in the Martin Luther King Memorial in Washington, DC. All three sets of images offer insights and generate pride in this great country of ours.
Norman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge, MA
In his later years, Norman Rockwell would look back on his artistic work and opine: “For 47 years, I portrayed the best of all possible worlds – grandfathers, puppy dogs – things like that. That kind of stuff is dead now, and I think it’s about time.” The art historian, Karal Ann Marling also notes that the decade of the 1960s saw a “‘new’ Norman Rockwell committed to the cause of desegregation and racial justice.” Nevertheless, the seeds for his new, more socially-charged work were planted by June of 1943, according to Jack Doyle, “when Roderick Stephens, an African-American activist and head of the Bronx Interracial Conference, wrote to Rockwell urging him to do a series of paintings to promote interracial relations.”
Here are two works of art the reveal the “new” Norman Rockwell.
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Norman Rockwell, Murder in Mississippi, 1965, Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge, MA |
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Norman Rockwell, The Problem We All Live With, 1964, Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge, MA |
National Civil Rights Museum, Memphis, Tennessee
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National Civil Rights Museum, Memphis, Tennessee, Entrance |
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National Civil Rights Museum, Memphis, Tennessee, Room 306 and Cars |
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National Civil Rights Museum, Memphis, Tennessee, Room 306 of the Lorraine Motel |
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National Civil Rights Museum, Memphis, Tennessee, Boarding House Bathroom and View to Room 306 |
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National Civil Rights Museum, Memphis, Tennessee, Historical Display |
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National Civil Rights Museum, Memphis, Tennessee, Jim Crow & Plessy v. Ferguson Historical Displays |
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National Civil Rights Museum, Memphis, Tennessee, Rosa Parks on the Bus |
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National Civil Rights Museum, Memphis, Tennessee, Civil Disobedience at the Lunch Counter |
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National Civil Rights Museum, Memphis, Tennessee, Model of Edmund Pettus Bridge, Selma, Alabama |
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National Civil Rights Museum, Memphis, Tennessee, Freedom Riders, Burned-out Greyhound Bus |
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National Civil Rights Museum, Memphis, Tennessee, Sanitation Workers’ Strike, Memphis, TN |
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National Civil Rights Museum, Memphis, Tennessee, Martin Luther King’s Jail Cell, Montgomery, AL |
It was from this cell that King wrote his famous “Letter from Birmingham” defending the strategy of non-violent resistance, even as he stood firm in his demands: “We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.” His letter was written on April 16, 1963.
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National Civil Rights Museum, Memphis, Tennessee, Gate to Boarding House Section |
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National Civil Rights Museum, Memphis, Tennessee, I Have a Dream Speech, Video Display |
Martin Luther King, Jr. National Monument, Washington, DC
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Martin Luther King, Jr., National Memorial, Washington DC, Lei Yixin, 2011 |
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Martin Luther King, Jr., National Memorial, Washington DC, Lei Yixin, 2011 |
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Martin Luther King, Jr., National Memorial, Washington DC, Lei Yixin, 2011, Wall of Quotations |
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Martin Luther King, Jr., National Memorial, Washington DC, Lei Yixin, 2011, Wall of Quotations, Montgomery, 1955 |
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Martin Luther King, Jr., National Memorial, Washington DC, Lei Yixin, 2011, Wall of Quotations, Washington, 1959 |
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Martin Luther King, Jr., National Memorial, Washington DC, Lei Yixin, 2011, Wall of Quotations, Strength to Love, 1963 |
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Martin Luther King, Jr., National Memorial, Washington DC, Lei Yixin, 2011, Wall of Quotations, Washington, 1968 |
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Martin Luther King, Jr., National Memorial, Washington DC, Lei Yixin, 2011, Wall of Quotations, Norway, 1964 |
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Martin Luther King, Jr., National Memorial, Washington DC, Lei Yixin, 2011, Wall of Quotations, Georgia, 1967 |
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Martin Luther King, Jr., National Memorial, Washington DC, Lei Yixin, 2011, “A Stone of Hope” |
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Washington DC, Storefront Mural, H Street, NE |
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