“In Honor of Dr. Martin Luther King”

Abstract

This article draws equally from archives as well as artwork, most of which remains unlocated. In 1963 William Christopher (1924–1973), a thirty-nine-year-old gay, white, Southern, Christian, dedicated his year’s output to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Christopher chronicled the year and his progress in a previously unknown diary. He created a series of paintings of African American women holding white masks and mirrors as symbols of racial oppression, and a black-and-white collage about the ongoing violence in Birmingham, Alabama. Christopher wrote King to offer a painting, which was accepted. In 1964 the two men met. In 1965 King invited Christopher to bring his 1963 paintings to Selma and join the march to Montgomery, which the artist did. William Christopher’s story and artwork are relevant to contemporary studies of whiteness and racism in American art. My article offers Christopher a greater audience than he ever knew and that he surely deserves.