Blog

January 20th is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, our only national day of service. When many people think of Dr. King, they recall his work with the Civil Rights Movement and his famous “I Have a Dream” speech. However, to know Dr. King’s history and the body of his work is to know the three barriers to the beloved community - racism, militarism, and poverty. At the end of his life, Dr. King was leading the Poor People’s Campaign, an effort to address the unemployment and housing problems throughout the United States. Dr. King was assassinated in Memphis while supporting the sanitation workers striking to improve working conditions and earn a living wage.

And so, in honor of Dr. King's work with poverty and January's designation as Poverty Awareness Month, we are sharing our lesson for John Anansa Thomas Biggers’ The Garbage Man. Painted in 1944, well before Dr. King’s activism, The Garbage Man provides a beautiful counterpart to Dr. King’s Poor People’s Campaign and his support of the Memphis Sanitation Workers Strike. The lesson, featured in the African American Perspectives series, guides students to analyze Biggers’ work through the Museum of Modern Art’s definition of social realism: “A movement that flourished between the two World Wars in response to the social and political turmoil and hardships of the period. Artists turned to realism as a way of making art easily accessible and legible to the wider public, often portraying their subjects—including well-known figures and anonymous everyday workers—as heroic symbols of persistence and strength in the face of adversity. Through their work, they aimed to call attention to the declining conditions of the poor and working classes and to challenge the governmental and social systems they held responsible.” By engaging with everyday people overcoming seemingly-insurmountable obstacles, we can move closer to the beloved community: we think Dr. King would approve. You'll find all the lesson procedures and details in African American Perspectives.

Honoring Dr. King’s legacy, we encourage people to take the day on rather than the day off by finding ways to champion social issues in their communities.

Sarah Turner closed the kitchen cupboard and went into the streets; John Wilkins shut down the elevator and enlisted in the nonviolent army; Bill Griggs slammed the brakes of his truck and slid to the sidewalk; the Reverend Arthur Jones led his flock into the streets and held church in jail. The words and actions of parliaments and statesmen, of kings and prime ministers, movie stars and athletes, were shifted from the front pages to make room for the history-making deeds of the servants, the drivers, the elevator operators and the ministers.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Why We Can’t Wait