Plate from Letter from Birmingham City Jail
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
screenprint from an illustrated book with eight screenprints
Dimensions
overall (closed): 39.8 × 33.2 × 4.9 cm (15 11/16 × 13 1/16 × 1 15/16 in.)
Classification
Volume
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Ruth Fine in honor of Michele Wallace
Accession Number
2021.80.27.2
Art Historical Context
Faith Ringgold's *Plate from Letter from Birmingham Jail* (2007) is a powerful screenprint from an illustrated featuring eight prints, honoring Martin Luther King Jr.' iconic 1963 letter. Written from a Birmingham jail cell, King's essay passionately defends nonviolent civil disobedience against racial injustice, becoming a cornerstone of the Civil Rights Movement. Ringgold a trailblazing African American artist known for her narrative quilts and activism, transforms this text into vivid visual storytelling, with printing by Curlee Raven Holten. As part of a bound volume (39.8 × 33.2 × 4.9 cm...