This photo collage blends images of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Trayvon Martin with a slogan expressing the need for renewed civil rights activism following the Zimmerman trial's "not guilty" verdict.
If you find merit in the above image and its message, you are free to use it as you see fit, on this site and any other. It has been added to the DKos image library.
Dr. King's work and words are often on my mind. Every semester, I use Dr. King's inspiring speeches to present my students his excellent examples of polished rhetoric and the painstaking revision needed to craft memorable writing. I will do so again when I return to teaching in the fall, and I wonder what attitudes my new students will bring with them about race, equality, and justice in their communities. Many past students have balked at considering that Dr. King's messages remain necessary lessons; too many have believed the myth of Dr. King's "dream" having been achieved in "post-racial" America. Classes start again at the end of August, the month of the March on Washington's 50th anniversary, and I wonder, I hope, that Trayvon Martin's tragedy and the Zimmerman verdict's travesty will have awakened my new students to the persisting realities of racism, limited opportunity, and injustice.
So, Dr. King's "justice and righteousness" passage in his "Dream" speech has been ringing in my head since I heard about the Zimmerman trial's conclusion. My heart still hurts: for Trayvon Martin's family; for the DKos writers and all other parents and grandparents who fear for their sons and grandsons; for our nation now stumbling, falling, and failing to realize the color-blind future Dr. King and other past civil rights leaders and activists laid out for us. Yet I have found some relief in making this diary's image. If you find it worthy enough to spread around, then I will feel even better in making this small contribution to a renewed civil rights movement.