" Our Glory "
Homage to the Civil Rights Movement

When the struggle for freedom began in the late 1950’s the individuals participating in the civil rights movement could not have possibly foreseen that protesting in support of basic human dignity would culminate in one of the most heart rending civil wars of American history. It was the most momentous social struggle in post war America. It was the “Second American Revolution” that forced America to reaffirm its Democratic ideals and brought to light the tunnels of injustice that have always undermined our democracy.

I had the opportunity to review images of protestors attacked by police dogs and battered by high-pressure water cannons. Those Birmingham images incited a desire in me to reflect the strength and courage of the disenfranchised African-American. I found it difficult to look at those images without flinching from the anger and sadness they invoked. I needed to pay tribute to that type of courage and perseverance.

This piece is made of linen canvas with machine- embroidered elements and silver stud stars. The back is made of blue satin with emblematic silver buttons. (63.5 in x 81 in).

The Red Stripes -- Tommie Smith and John Carlos at the 1968 Mexico City, Mexico Olympics. After winning the 200 meter dash, as the anthem played and the flag raised, they put their heads down and raised their fists covered with a black leather glove, the symbol of black power, in protest of the civil rights atrocities committed against Blacks in America.

The White Stripes -- The Fruit of Islam. The Nation of Islam Women’s Corp stand together on Savior’s day, Chicago 1967, as they listen to Minister Elijah Mohammed.

The Stars

James Earl Chaney -- It was freedom summer, Father’s Day Sunday June 21, 1964 in Bogue Chitto Creek, Neshoba County Mississippi. On the day of his murder, one of three civil rights workers, he had driven to Mississippi to enlist the poorest most remote, most endangered of America’s citizens as participants in democracy- voter registration.

The three were arrested in the middle of the night. They never returned. The disappearances were such major news that the uproar helped end a southern filibuster in Congress against the proposed civil rights act and eased its passage on July 2, 1964.

Rosa Parks -- Arrested Thursday evening December 1, 1955 for violating Montgomery Alabama segregation law. “Y’all make it light on yourself and let me have those seats”, shouted the driver at four black passengers on his bus. They hadn’t jumped up fast enough when a white rider stood over them. Three of the four did change seats, but Rosa, a 43-year-old seamstress on her way home from work refused. The driver told her he would enforce the Jim Crow law and have her arrested. Parks replied quietly, “You may do that”.

Anne Moody -- On February 1, 1960 four black college freshmen sat down at the sixty-six seat F.W. Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro North Carolina. They ordered coffee and doughnuts. The waitress said “I’m sorry, we don’t serve you here “. The store manager tried to talk them off their seats, the four politely refused. They sat unserved until closing time. This sit in sparked dozens of resistance movements. Economic pressure had been added to moral persuasion.

Bob Marley -- A follower of the Rastafarian religion, which advocated nonviolence, he preached universal harmony. An emblem of the struggles of oppressed peoples, he denounced racial discrimination, singing until the end of his short life.

Stokely Carmicheal -- (row2) It was his speech on June 16, 1966 in Greenwood Mississippi that began to popularize the phrase “Black Power”. He had been arrested there several times; in fact he was jailed again on the day of the speech then bailed out. He stood before an audience of six hundred. He spoke with anger about his many arrests and about the many years of struggle with minimal results. He concluded: “what we gonna start saying now is ‘black power’”. “We want –black power”. “ What do we want? Black power”. “ We want- black power”.

Huey Newton -- Founded the Black Panther Party for self-defense in 1965 in Oakland California. Newton said, “Our program was structured after the Black Muslim program – minus the religion. We wanted to organize youthful black folks into some kind of political electoral, power movement.

Aretha Franklin -- Known as the Queen of Soul, it was recordings like “Respect” and “I never loved a man” that made her music truly great from 1960 to 1967. It was her ability to take the passion of gospel music and inject it into R & B, jazz and pot tunes that made her unique.

Martin Luther King, Jr. -- Labeled the most significant leader of a movement that had many leaders. King advocated social revolution through non-violence. He stated, “We are divided and confused”. In these trying circumstances the black revolution is much more than a struggle for the rights of Negroes. It is rather forcing America to take all its interrelated flaws: racism, poverty, militarism and materialism. It is exposing evils that are rooted deeply in the whole structure of our society.

Assata Shakur -- (row 3) On May 2, 1973 Black Panther aka JoAnne Chesimard lay close to death, while local, state, and federal police attempted to question her about the shoot out on the New Jersey Turnpike that claimed the life of a white state trooper. Long a target of J. Edgar Hoover’s campaign to defame, infiltrate, and criminalize Black Nationalist Organizations and their leaders, Shakur was incarcerated for four years prior to her conviction as an accomplice to murder. Two years later she escaped and was given asylum in Cuba where she currently resides.

Malcom X -- A follower and a leader of the Nation of Islam, he was not a part of the civil rights movement that was founded on nonviolent resistance, but his message became an increasingly important complement to it. Malcom gave voice, more loudly than ever before, to black rage. By standing apart in fearless rejection of white society, he personified black pride.

Marvin Gaye -- Originally signed as a drummer, he was nevertheless Motown’s most versatile vocalist, The son of a D.C. minister, his formidable falsetto awash oceans of exotic passion and appropriately loose party down, made songs like “What’s going on” and “Mercy, Mercy me”, synonymous with the 1960’s yet timeless.

Angela Davis -- Born in Birmingham Alabama, she was one of the most publicized political activists of the 1960’s and 1970’s. She was the subject of a nation wide police hunt after she was implicated in the infamous Soledad Brother’s shooting.

Cynthia Wesley -- (row4) On Sunday September 15, 1963, just two weeks after the march on Washington, Birmingham’s Sixteenth Street Baptist Church Denise Mc Nair was celebrating Youth Day. The church was full of children. A bomb was flung from a speeding car. The explosion injured twenty one children and killed four young girls.