Martin Luther King Jr - Westminster Abbey, London, UK
N 51° 29.968 W 000° 07.716
30U E 699295 N 5709279
A statue to Martin Luther King Jr, a modern martyr, was unveiled in July 1998 and stands above the west entrance to Westminster Abbey. This is one of ten statues of 20th century martyrs.
Waymark Code: WME2C6
Location: London, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 03/25/2012
Views: 9
The statue, by Tim Crawley, was placed here in 1998. It
weighs about a ton and is carved from French Richemont limestone. The statue,
that is about twice life size, shows King in his ministerial robes with a child
sat at his feet. His right hand is raised with forefinger extended as if making
a point in his speech. His left forearm is extended to the front with the palm
of his hand upwards. The child is looking up at the left hand.
The Westminster Abbey website (view
link) tells us about King:
"In an age of discrimination and persecution
'If physical death is the price I must pay to free my brothers and sisters from
the permanent death of the spirit, then nothing could be more redemptive.'
Martin Luther King Jr, was born on 15 January 1929. His father was the minister
of the Ebenezer Baptist church in Atlanta, Georgia. It was this vibrant and
confident tradition of African-American Christianity that fashioned King’s
childhood, inspired his sense of identity and purpose, and sustained his great
convictions. As a little boy, he saw for himself the violence of racial hatred,
and the oppression of African Americans at every turn in their daily lives.
At the age of fifteen he entered Morehouse College in Atlanta. Then he travelled
on to Crozier Theological College in the north of the country. Here he met
students from all backgrounds, and matured in the company of his peers,
cultivating his gifts for intellectual life and finding a new breadth of
experience. He was ordained.
In the 1950s African-American communities were becoming increasingly vocal
against racial segregation and persecution, drawing on what was already a rich
tradition of protest against oppression, and now transforming it into a new,
campaigning force for change. Martin Luther King’s first church was Dexter
Avenue, Montgomery, in Alabama. As a leading light in the community he was soon
drawn into a demonstration against segregation on the city’s bus Services. It
was brilliantly successful. King soon formed the Southern Christian Leadership
Conference and pressed ahead in his fight for justice. The cost that he and his
own family paid for his new work was all too evident; there were death threats
and bombs. Police harassment and imprisonment lay ahead.
King’s prophetic vision combined an explicitly Christian language of freedom and
justice with an appeal to American democracy. Peaceful protests would affirm the
dignity of African-Americans and embarrass their oppressors before the eyes of
the world. His approach was essentially Gandhian. Violence bred violence only.
Love must reply to hate.
In a federal society the southern states of America enjoyed great freedom to
legislate for themselves. But the central government in Washington also had the
power - if the will existed - to overrule and overturn their decisions in the
name of the nation.
The Civil Rights Movement was both regional and national. In August 1963 there
occurred a massive public march on Washington, perhaps the greatest statement
made by the movement. A civil rights act was passed by congress on 2 July 1964;
other acts framed to advance or protect the political rights of African American
citizens followed.
In 1967 Martin Luther King Jr was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. But the
violence that had always pursued him would soon claim him. Only a year later, on
4 April 1968, he was shot dead in Memphis. He was thirty-nine years old. Today
he is widely celebrated as one of the great prophetic leaders of the later
twentieth century, and his name still inspires those who follow his call for
Justice."