Reflections of Martin Luther King, Jr

On Instagram this past week, I was blessed to see some "never before seen" color photos of Martin Luther King, Jr. and his wife, Coretta Scott King. These photos showed them sharing playful, smiling, and romantic moments. Their faces were relaxed, their gazes didn't completely meet the eye of the camera. Instead they seemed caught up in the euphoria of young love. The brown flesh of their faces cast out that beautiful sepia glow.

I wondered what they were thinking. If they had known with certainty the day and moment of their untimely earthly separation, would they still have been smiling, unburdened and carefree? Did they realize that they were completely photogenic and beautiful, an easy assignment for any photographer?

Also this week, a tacky poster superimposed Dr. King's image on a gold-chain wearing body. Obviously, the  creator felt that it was okay to use someone's image without permission and completely out of context. The poster designer hi-jacked a powerful image for a rootless and worthless concert promotion.

Dr. King's face didn't belong on that poster - that is obvious. The only good thing about it was that at least they properly captured the tone and jolly dimensions of his face.

We are used to seeing the somber, black & white video of the late 1960's, which is where his life ended. I find it ironic that he was killed in an era of black and white media, just before color tv became an American staple. While many movies from the 50's and earlier have been colorized a la Ted Turner, media coverage of Dr. King seems forever stamped in black and white.

The famous "I Have A Dream" speech might be less resonant in color. Had his speech been filmed today, the focus would be on the color of his tie or his suit designer, rather than the words.

So, Dr. King's political life will likely remain starkly colored in the unforgiving monotones of black and white. However, those personal moments, usually fully of super-white, halcyon smiles shining out of perfectly smooth brown skin, pre air-brush.  It seems that the truly great always are taken just before a significant shift in society. King, the champion of all Blacks, bane to the racist white society, never lived to see how color changed the face of tv, but I see his influence even there. Color (HD) and content are the two single most important media issues in today's time, though of course, in a slightly different context.

Now that I'm thinking about this, I'm going to do a search for colorized images of Dr. King, both in personal and public moments, and see what I can find.

The hues and contours of Dr. King's face, his expressions, radiate in black and white and in color, encompassing the color spectrum.