Memorial poster for Martin Luther King, Jr.: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

This screen print, printing ink on paper, poster memorializes Martin Luther King, Jr. [MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. 1929 1968 / HE DIED TO MAKE MEN FREE] is printed over red and white stripes, resembling the American flag, in the middle, right of the poster. A dark blue image of King, in the upper left of the poster, has an excerpt of King’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail, April 16, 1963 on top of it. The text reads: [The question is not whether we will be extremist~ but what kind of extremist we will be~ / Will we be extremists for hate, or will we be extremists for LOVE? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice, or ~ will we be extremists for the cause of justice?]. The bottom of the poster has a portion of King’s I Have a Dream speech [I HAVE A DREAM / THAT MY FOUR CHILDREN WILL ONE DAY LIVE IN A NATION WHERE THEY WILL NOT BE JUDGED BY THE COLOR OF THEIR SKIN BUT BY THE CONTENT OF THEIR CHARACTERS / LITTLE BLACK BOYS & LITTLE BLACK GIRLS WILL BE ABLE TO HOLD HANDS WITH LITTLE WHITE BOYS & LITTLE WHITE GIRLS AS BROTHERS & SISTERS]. Below the text is a drawing of children holding hands. The lower right corner has [Edie Brown Eisenberg 1968 ©].

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: 1968
• Created by: Edie Brown Eisenberg, American, 1920 - 2012
• Subject of: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., American, 1929 - 1968
• Type: screen prints
• Type: posters
• Medium: printing ink on paper (fiber product)
• Dimensions: H x W: 30 × 40 3/16 in. (76.2 × 102.1 cm)
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Civil Rights
• Topic: Race relations
• Object number: 2010.59.7
• Credit Line: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
• Data Source: National Museum of African American History and Culture

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of African American History and Culture through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed. The underlying object's rights statement is: © Edie Brown Eisenberg 1968 Permission required for use. Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.