Located on the front lawn behind a fence of the Martin Luther King Plaza Apartments, 3234 West Madison,Chicago, Illinois.
I stopped by to visit this statue on a dreary, rainy Christmas Day, 2009. The neighborhood remains one that is challenged economically. Hopefully Dr. King's inspiration will eventually help overcome this. The statue seems in fine shape but the base is crumbling and in need of repair. Waymark posted on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day - January 18, 2010.
From Bach, Gray “Chicago’s Public Sculpture”
"Sculptor Geraldine McCullough has emphasized several qualities of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929— 68), “a strong, dynamic man who had the power to move millions of men,” in this 9-foot-high bronze sculpture. Her portrayal of King as a great African chieftain makes it clear that he was Black, and her selection of the classical fifteenth-century Benin art of Nigeria as her mode permits her to use the symbols of that art to indicate that King was a religious man and a universal man of peace. The face on the sculpture is clearly a portrait of her subject, while the figure wears the trappings of African royalty. The tiger-tooth necklace indicates courage, and the side shields of the mask, one who shuns evil. The Indian prayer wheel topped with a globe of the earth in the figure’s right hand suggests King’s philosophy of passive resistance, and the broken Coptic cross in the left hand represents his assassination. The dove of peace on the headdress and the Nobel Peace Prize medal around the figure’s neck both emphasize Kings mission of peace. His followers are represented by twelve tiny heads around the crown of the headdress.
Martin Luther King, Jr., was born in Atlanta, Georgia, the son and grandson of Baptist ministers, and was ordained himself in 1947. He received a doctorate from Boston College in 1955 and came to national prominence a year later when he successfully led a boycott of public buses in Montgomery, Alabama, to protest racial segregation. As head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, he encouraged nonviolent mass action campaigns that spurred passage of federal civil rights and voting rights legislation. He received the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize. In 1966 King chose Chicago as the first northern city for his campaign. He was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was planning to lead a march of striking sanitation workers.
Geraldine McCullough received her training at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She was head of the Fine Arts Department and professor of art at Rosary College, River Forest, Illinois. She lived in Oak Park and was active on the village planning board. She participated in many exhibitions and won numerous awards. Other public sculptures by McCullough can be seen in the Chicago area."
From Riedy, “Chicago Sculpture”
"After Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated, the planner of a housing project on West Madison commissioned Geraldine McCullough’s extraordinary bronze statue, Our King, for installation in front of apartments replacing structures burned out during the 1968 riots that followed King’s death. The sculptor noted a similarity between King’s facial features and those of the tribal group inhabiting ancient Benin in southern Nigeria and decided to portray her subject as a Bini ruler. She was aware that Benin was famous for the great artistic merits of its bronze castings; and, just as the sculpture of Benin has a complex symbolism, so too has her bronze image of the civil rights leader. To call attention to his philosophy of nonviolence, she placed in one hand a broken sword with cross-shaped handle. The other hand holds a prayer wheel, meant to refer to universal prayer and Gandhi’s philosophy of passive resistance. Around the figure’s muscular neck are a necklace of tigers’ teeth worn by Bini royalty and the Nobel Peace Prize medallion awarded to King in 1964. The row of heads of people on the crown represents King’s followers. Above is a dove of peace."
It was interesting to learn more about the sculptor, Geraldine McCullough. From (
visit link)
"Renowned sculptor and painter Geraldine McCollough was born Geraldine Hamilton on December 1, 1917 in Kingston, Arkansas, and raised in Chicago from the time she was three years old. McCullough attended the Art Institute of Chicago for undergraduate and graduate studies, receiving her B.A. degree in 1948 and her M.A. degree in art education in 1955. As a student, she earned a John D. Standecker Scholarship, a Memorial Scholarship and a Figure Painting Citation.
After completing her graduate studies, McCullough taught art at Wendell Phillips High School in Chicago. She also began exhibiting her paintings at various national galleries, receiving first prize in 1961 at the Art Exhibit of Atlanta University. With help from her husband, Lester McCullough, she took up welded sculpture and made her sculpting debut in 1963 at the Century of Negro Progress Exposition in Chicago. She received the George D. Widener Gold Medal for Sculpture in 1965 for her steel and copper structure, Phoenix.
In 1967, she became the chairperson of the Art Department at Rosary College (later Dominican University) in River Forest, Illinois. Upon her retirement from the school in 1989, she was given an honorary doctorate.
McCullough's various works were informed by African ritual art to European and American influences. She was a distinguished guest artist of the Russian government and her work was exhibited at such respected institutions as the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. and the National Woman's Museum.
McCullough passed away on December 15, 2008 at the age of 91."
There is more at (
visit link)
which makes her about 5 years younger.