Image

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 / 51

Faith Ringgold

Letter from Birmingham City Jail

Description

Maker

Faith Ringgold (American, b. 1930)
Martin Luther King, Jr. (American, 1929 - 1968), author
Limited Editions Club, publisher

Title

Letter from Birmingham City Jail

Year

2008

Medium

Book containing eight color screenprints

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

Book containing eight color screenprints

Materials

ink, gold foil, linen, cardboard

Supports

wove paper

Geography

Place Made: New York

Dimensions

37.2 x 31.8 x 2.9 cm (14 5/8 x 12 1/2 x 1 1/8 inches) book

Signature / Inscription / Marks

signed "Faith Ringgold" in graphote on page 57, with the edition "126" given in graphite (from a total of 420)

Identification

Edition

126/420

Credit / Object Number

Credit

Georgianna Sayles Aldrich Fund

Object Number

2009.85

Type

Books

Exhibition History

Former Glory

Jul 27, 2018 – Jan 20, 2019

Label copy

In 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested in Birmingham, Alabama, with 50 other demonstrators for nonviolent resistance. From his jail cell, he wrote a response to eight white clergymen who had chastised the “confrontational” nature of civil rights movement tactics, calling for protestors’ “peaceful obedience” of the law, which allowed segregation. In his letter, King defends nonviolent direct action and the necessity of civil disobedience in confronting injustice.

Artist-activist Faith Ringgold has illustrated King’s letter in eight serigraphs. Here, two “colored” children are denied access to Funtown, an Atlanta amusement park. The flags flying over what seems to be a wholesome American scene ask viewers to consider how many people have been systematically excluded from activities and institutions in service to whiteness.

Drawing Conclusions

Jan 22, 2016 – Sep 25, 2016

Label copy

In this book, iconic scenes from the civil rights movement accompany a letter Dr. King wrote while jailed in Birmingham, Alabama. Ringgold reflects in the introduction, “What [King] has to say about the life and struggle of black people in America is a treatise on freedom and justice and a model for democracy in the world.”

Use & Feedback

Image use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use.

This object is in copyright

Tombstone

Faith Ringgold (American, b. 1930)
Martin Luther King, Jr. (American, 1929 - 1968), author
Limited Editions Club, publisher

Letter from Birmingham City Jail, 2008

Book containing eight color screenprints

37.2 x 31.8 x 2.9 cm (14 5/8 x 12 1/2 x 1 1/8 inches) book

Georgianna Sayles Aldrich Fund 2009.85

To request new photography, please send an email to imagerequest@risd.edu and include your name and the object's accession number.

Feedback

We view our online collection as a living documents, and our records are frequently revised and enhanced. If you have additional information or have spotted an error, please send feedback to curatorial@risd.edu.