Martin Luther King, Jr.

Object Details

Exhibition Label: Born Atlanta, Georgia; Although many important civil rights leaders emerged in the 1950s and 1960s, Martin Luther King Jr. personified the struggle for African American equality and justice. King’s synthesis of Christian theology and its message of a supporting and loving God, along with Mohandas Gandhi’s tactics of nonviolent protest, became the defining features of the civil rights movement. In 1963 King focused the nation’s attention on the African American struggle by leading a massive civil rights protest in Birmingham, Alabama, and the August 28 March on Washington, in which he delivered his historic “I have a dream” speech. By the mid-1960s King also became involved in the antiwar movement. This photograph by Benedict Fernandez was taken on April 15, 1967, after a march from New York’s Central Park to the United Nations Plaza, where King delivered an address denouncing the Vietnam War as racist.

Credit Line: National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of Eastman Kodak Professional Photography Division, the Engl Trust, and Benedict J. Fernandez

1967 (printed 1989)

Medium: Gelatin silver print
Dimensions: Image: 31.1 x 20.8 cm (12 1/4 x 8 3/16"); Sheet: 35.3 x 27.8 cm (13 7/8 x 10 15/16"); Mat: 55.9 x 40.6cm (22 x 16")

National Portrait Gallery

Topic: Martin Luther King, Jr.: Male; Martin Luther King, Jr.: Society and Social Change\Reformer\Activist\Civil rights activist\Civil rights leader; Martin Luther King, Jr.: Religion and Spirituality\Clergy\Minister; Martin Luther King, Jr.: Nobel Prize; Martin Luther King, Jr.: Presidential Medal of Freedom; Martin Luther King, Jr.: Congressional Gold Medal; Portrait

GUID (Link to Original Record): http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/sm4a50e21ce-40bc-4912-b639-9dbeb24f8609