Admissions Image Choice

I have chosen this iconic image of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. after winning the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize in Baltimore, Maryland due to its historical and symbolic significance.  The image is representative of Dr. King’s philosophy of peace and community building thanks to the gathering of hands and bodies on a seemingly random street corner in America during the Civil Rights, which is to say a cultural and racial landscape full of historical struggles and a hope for an equal future.

The image is centered on sunlit Dr. King grasping hands with a group of African American women supporters.  He is sitting in the back seat of a black convertible and he has a luminous smile that Leonard Freed captured as he turned toward his fellow citizens as his bodyguard keeps eye toward the street.

There are two white uniformed police officers in the background with stoic expressions trying to carry out their duties of maintaining the public peace.  The photograph carries such an immense historical gravity due to its closeness to Dr. King’s assassination but it also has a lightness of being that lifts the veil of racism through the smiles and gratitude inherent in its subjects.
This image by Leonard Freed at the height of the Civil Rights Movement illustrates the will and devotion that Dr. King mobilized in his everyday life.  The people he surrounded himself with shared a common goal for civil equality with a spirit of compassion and grace in the face of hatred and discrimination.
For this reason, this image will forever remind me to keep my head high and my visions clear even in the face of the most daunting challenges and obstacles.