Martin Luther King

[Android]

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[Sofa King]

Thanks for posting this video Android.

[FlipMcgee]

Oh I get it now. That Boondocks s-word episode and MLK day.

[Digital_Blacksmith]

Fuck it, you cant have an open opinion apparently, and you cant get a straight answer either, so why bother keeping this post up.

[Interceptor]

Read a fucking book

[Digital_Blacksmith]

.....

[Micaiah Nelson]

Your not racist, you just missed a big fucking point! Use wikipedia you....

[Digital_Blacksmith]

.....

[Micaiah Nelson]

You say something about a man like he did nothing, and you demand respect! I already answered your question. You should read all about him because hes done more than a few paragraphs can tell you!

[Interceptor]

you can stop crying now.. here's the wiki link.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_luther_king

and what pisses me off, is even if you know nothing of him.. the name itself is synonymous with the movement of human rights and is a big deal to alot of people. so before you take half a second to look up wikipedia or google, you're in herre running your mouth about "all he did was give some speaches". have a bit of class and common sense before you go around downplaying something that obviously means enough to people that they'll make a holiday in his honor.

[Mitchell]

Fuck it, you cant have an open opinion apparently, and you cant get a straight answer either, so why bother keeping this post up.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King,_Jr.

there ya go. Would you like me to cut up those carrots for you too?

Thanks Android, great video.

[Digital_Blacksmith]

Jesus fucking christ, I gave up, yet none of you do. I got the wikipedia, and I never said he wasnt a good man, i was just wanting to know what exactly he did that so many other people like him didnt. So boo hoo, I offended your fragile little minds. So fucking sorry. So give this bullshit up and move the fuck on. Go draw or something. Just drop it.

[Android]

im hearing that there is a request to know more about Martin Luther King .

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this is his last speech. he was murdered the next day
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[Micaiah Nelson]

He had a powerful voice and was a powerful leader! Those were a time of great change that help made a better America for the world, he fought for equality, and a new American Dream for everyone! We all need to keep his dream alive!

[rustikof]

The biggest difference between him and a lot of others doing the same thing was the difference between a lot of leaders in the same vein (ghandi, bobby kennedy)----he was able to express his ideas eloquently and in a way that everybody understood what he meant. communication is an incredibly important skill, just in the same way that art is. it can make people act their greatest or act their worst, so you can't descredit him even on the basis that he "gave a lot of speeches".

I wish there were more MLK's these days.

[Nerahla]

I don't know how anybody could listen to him and not feel moved and inspired. Thanks so much for posting those vids.


I wish there were more MLK's these days.

Quoted for truth.

[yoitisi]

Thanks for sharing these Android :) my knowledge of American history and the exact context of his speeches is a little hazy, but I found those pretty inspiring to watch. Never actually saw footage of him speaking before.

[MarkWinters]

It floors me how much he accomplished at his age. He wasn't even 40 when he died.

[masque]

God, it's so weird (and kind of pitiable) to think you poor peeps experience this man's greatness only through little video windows or website write-ups, far, far outside of the context of his life and times.

If you think all he did was make speeches you need to get your head out. He's one of those who changed the world, and changed it for the better. What have you done with your life?

[Jason Ross]

The ideas of great people in history transcend race, religion and gender, and when those ideas empower the people...the powers at be do away with them.

[DSillustration]

Amazing man.

I remember the first time I saw his "I have a dream" speech on video.
Until then, I had only read it in books, or had a teacher recite it.
Then, in observance of the day, our school aired it in it's entirety on the CC system.
My jaw dropped.
His voice literally sent chills down my spine.
What a great speaker!

An excerpt from his essay 'A Letter From Birmingham Jail':

Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say, "Wait." But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate filled policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six year old daughter why she can't go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a five year old son who is asking: "Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?"; when you take a cross county drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you; when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading "white" and "colored"; when your first name becomes "n1gger" your middle name becomes "boy" (however old you are) and your last name becomes "John," and your wife and mother are never given the respected title "Mrs."; when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next, and are plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of "nobodiness"--then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait.

You can (and should) read it all here:
http://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html

A few years back, I was commissioned to do a series of portraits of 'Great American Leaders'.
For the most part, they told me what to paint.
But I did coerce them to let me paint King.
To this day, I am glad I did.

It's not the greatest painting (I was just out of school),
but it was a fun challenge to try to paint a new image of King without copying some popular photograph.
Quite a bit of research went into figuring out his character, what sort of things he would have in his home, how to present him.
That research gave me a whole new level of appreciation for him.

The painting is life size and stands about 6 feet tall:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v704/DSillustration/mlk_low.jpg

[Mr. Visions]

He truly was an inspiring man, I listen to a lot of his speeches on Itunes, it's very uplifting and truly inspiring. His courage, spirit and determination should push us all, no matter what race, creed or tongue to excel for for the best within ourselves and to see the best in others. A unique, remarkable man.

That's always been one of my fav's of your Dan. Thanks for the excerpt, and thanks Andrew for the clip.

- Visions

[Serpian]

Wow, that excerpt Dan posted is a very long sentence! He was a great rhetoric. Thanks for the videos, I've never really heard any speeches by him other than only the most famous lines of I have a dream.

[Ilaekae]

I saw MLK speak. And I saw and felt what came before him. To me, it's not just boring history printed in some book.

I saw the blood, the fear, and smelled the gas. I stood in a line on a public street and waited to die with others, and I did it on ground within what is supposed to be the most democratic country on Earth. Hate is a real entity. It has a stench that can be overwhelming. I saw how easy it was to make somebody a target for "good" people just by calling them "niggers," "n-lovers," "freaks," and "commie traitors."

I was beaten nearly to death by people in uniforms who had sworn to protect my rights. A few of my friends died at the hands of these same people. It wasn't a comic book. It wasn't a movie. It was real. It was in front of me. It was something that I hope none of you ever have to experience, and I don't dislike or ridicule you for not understanding why there is a black hole in my soul that will never heal.

I sat in a greasy spoon having coffee when the announcement of MLK's murder was broadcast, and the guy next to me said, "Well, that's one less 'n' to worry about..." I picked up the stool I was sitting on and smashed it into his face as hard as I could, then paid for my coffee and left. To this day, I don't know if that bastard was dead or alive when I left, but I never went back to find out. And I will...never...apologize...to...him..for what I did.

To most of you, this is just musty history, or some glorious legendary sequence of events that swept through the world like a magical wave. Learn about it. Form opinions about it. Try to understand why. For me, it was simply part of my life, and I'm glad I was there as a witness...

[MarkWinters]

wow. Ilaekae, I'm floored. I both sympathize and salute you.

[yoitisi]

Ilaekae: Respect, is all I can say...

[masque]

Whoa, Alj, big flashbacks here, reading your post and Buffalo Springfield in the BG, "For What It's Worth." Heavy.

"There's just one thing I'd like to know, can you tell me please... who won?"
--Wooden Ships, Stills, Crosby & Kantner

[Layil]

yes, mad respect....

[Interceptor]

Wow, Ilaekae.. being on here sometimes it's easy to forget that we're more than the art we produce. Thanks for sharing a bit of your life with us there. It reminds me of a quote I heard recently, "Freedom is'nt a gift that was given to us, but a legacy that was left to us by years of fighting for it, and unless we continure to fight for it, it may slip away from us." It's really easy to forget what people have gone through to give us everything that we have nowdays.

[•Lindsay•]

Smashing someone's face is the opposite of what Martin Luther King taught. There where a lot of riots after his death, I think everyone rioting missed the point.

[N D Hill]

"True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth.

Capitalism is always in danger of inspiring men to be more concerned about making a living than making a life. We are prone to judge success by the index of our salaries or the size of our automobiles rather than by the quality of our service and relationship to humanity. Thus capitalism can lead to a practical materialism that is as pernicious as the materialism taught by communism."

-Martin Luther King Jr.