Description

Historical Introduction

This poster is a visual reckoning with America’s long genealogy of racial terror and the unbroken line of resistance that rose to confront it. At its center stand Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., and Medgar Evers—three men whose visions for Black freedom were distinct yet deeply intertwined, and whose lives were each cut short by assassination. Their faces anchor this piece as reminders that state-sanctioned violence did not silence their message; it amplified the urgency of their struggle.

Surrounding them are symbols of both terror and defiance: the hooded specter of the Ku Klux Klan, the raised fist of collective power, the dove of unyielding hope, and the multigenerational crowd that refuses erasure. This artwork traces how domestic terrorism has shaped the nation’s history, while honoring the ancestral spirit that continues to rise, resist, and remember.