In honor of Martin Luther King Junior today, I brought this image out of storage to share.
I created this image in 1997, my senior year of high school. There was a call for art from the Ladies Auxiliary to the VFW in Canton, Ohio, where I grew up. The call was for art for high school students, and there was prize money involved for the top three places- so it was a juried competition. I believe the theme had to do with influential Americans, so I chose Martin Luther King, Sojourner Truth, and Chief Seattle.
Now, I chose these people for the various causes they were known for, but the feedback I got was “why did you choose two civil rights activists?” Or something along those lines. I specifically remember feeling like I was supposed to have put a white person on this image. Not that I am against white people, I am one, but I very specifically chose these people to honor.
Martin Luther King, definitely an advocate for human rights, and perhaps most notably an advocate for the equal rights of ll humans. On some level, the school’s do a good job at this- my 1st grader, in Texas, is absolutely in love with this lesson in school. But I wish the conversation continues as we get older. How does a history of slavery affect the young black and African Americans that are growing up today? There is a fantastic author and professor, Dr. Joyce DeGruy that talks about this very subject. We need to be having these conversations across race and skin color and not hiding from the past. Her book “Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome” helps start that conversation. And helps someone like me (White, privileged) view this world from a different standpoint. Dr. DeGruy is way more articulate than I can ever be on this subject, and she is definitely worth listening to. Check out her book here, and look her YouTube video up on here.
My other images were also icons, and had a lot to do with the issues that affected me when I was a teenager. Chief Seattle was one of the first advocates for environmentalism, or at least he was attributed to that when I was more active in learning about the environment and what we are doing to the world. The Native Americans often are attributed to a greater respect for our natural lands and resources, and seem to have a gentler perspective on how to use our food and land resources in a way that doesn’t decimate the environment. He was a great icon for me, and I still feel like there is a lot to be learned from being more in touch with our land and efforts to conserve.
Finally, Sojourner Truth. I chose her, not only for her accomplishments within the anti-slavery movement, but she was also known as a huge advocate for women’s rights. I think that this is where the people at the Women’s Auxiliary missed the message. Women’s rights were so important to me at that time in my life, and she definitely was a woman that fought for the rights of humans. I could have picked a white woman, like Susan B Anthony. She would have been a good choice too, sure, but didn’t have quite the same impact for me. Sojourner Truth fought for her children, and as a woman, a black woman, she won against her oppressors. In court. To me, women’s rights and slave rights go hand in hand, but the fact that Sojourner Truth stood for both was what drew me to include her in this image.
I won second place for that drawing. I don’t know what the first place artist created, and I didn’t know about the feedback until I got my piece back. But it still bothers me to this day that the point was lost, or that the women’s auxiliary didn’t recognize that this woman made such an impact on their lives. Or, perhaps I am equally guilty of making assumptions, since this feedback was written, and I didn’t open up the opportunity for a conversation about why I chose who it chose. I left the art to speak for itself, and I realize now that I need to be the voice for my art, for my fellow humans, for the environment. Sometimes words and conversation just help the image along. Just be kind, to everyone.
