Today is Martin Luther King’s birthday, a federal holiday, which is observed on the third Monday of January.
From my upcoming artist book, “Transforming Hate: The Proposal“:
When I was 23
I was one of over 200,000 people, to witness
Martin Luther King give “I Have a Dream”
at the “March on Washington for Jobs & Freedom.”
I marched for Paul Robeson, Emmett, Rosa and the domestic workers in Montgomery who walked to their jobs on aching feet rather than ride segregated buses; for Medgar Evers, the WWII veteran killed after applying for entrance to university in his home state of Mississippi; for my mom who could not make the walk; and for the unborn child I carried.
Book Text in Progress
WHILE I was 28
Martin Luther King was shot to death in Memphis, Tennessee.
I felt angry, helpless, devastated!
Riots broke out in over 100 cities.
Police barricades surrounded my neighborhood.
Book Text in Progress:
My Wall
1968
