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Great Wall Institute: The Process of the Great Wall of Los Angeles

March on Washington Illustration (2007)

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3. The Ending of Jim Crow Illustration (2022) Early drawing of 1960s End of Jim Crow and psychedelic sky by Kim Martinez. "I have worked on the first panel and these are very rough sketches to give us an idea of the figure ground relationship. I used hippy chick grounds and they have a bit more of a cartoony effect if you want them more serious I think we need to go with a ground that is less happy decorative as per the middle drawing where the birds are coming out of the linear elements of the ground, I think it also says something a little more conceptual too. Of course these will require a lot more work as far as setting up to draw and I would do much bigger than a few inches tall."
6. Watts Rebellion Illustration (9.2022) Initial thumbnail sketch by Kim Martinez "I wanted to get you these ideas for the Watts section of course I have not put a lot of energy into a complete drawing but these will give you an idea of what I am thinking. #1 Historically is not accurate but I liked the visual of the cops surrounding them as they are being pulled out kind of hard to see but the figures on the left in the car is the woman trying to hold back the man as the cop pulls. #2 After they have all been pulled the two kneeling on the ground is painful and humiliating, but also has a praying feel to it. #3 The figure on the ground is the female, not sure if I like that, but could easily be changed to a male and she could be pulled out instead of the male, finally the last male is already out being carried away. I think they all have a temporal feel to them."
15. Women's Liberation Movement Illustration (2008)
17. March on Washington Illustration (2007)
18. Plantation Capitalism Illustration (2022) Early thumbnail sketch of Plantation Capitalism by Rio Diaz. Drawing was inspired by an interview with Reverend Lawson where he mentions the impact of Plantation Capitalism. "The rays of the sun outstretch the long arm of the Plantation Gov. House through time. The power of sun rises throughout time. Rolling hills, highlight the evolutionary waves of crops and bondage Sacrificed labor force - men women and children Native peoples collapse under the unsustainable brutality of abuse and workload - their enslavement is taken up by the next wave of slave labor. African slaves - harvest/produce cotton as well as more slaves – represented by a baby in basket of cotton; a mother straps her baby on the back of her older child, so they both can continue working. A man is dehumanized by whippings, his wounds are tended by the cotton he’s destined to forever harvest. Latin American labor force is sacrificed on the cross-looking vines – their legs become the trucks of the vine, to illuminate their entrapment; while their hunched bodies will be part of the vine that is fed by their blood and sweat - destined to produce till they die."

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1963 - March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom “The March on Washington is not the climax of our struggle, but a new beginning not only for the Negro but for all Americans who thirst for freedom and a better life. When we leave, it will be to carry on the civil rights revolution home with us into every nook and cranny of the land, and we shall return again and again to Washington in ever growing numbers, until total freedom is ours.” —A. Philip Randolph

"The March on Washington was a massive protest march that occurred in August 1963, when some 250,000 people gathered in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. Also known as the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, the event aimed to draw attention to continuing challenges and inequalities faced by African Americans a century after emancipation. It was also the occasion of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s now-iconic “I Have A Dream” speech." - https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/march-on-washington

Extracted from The Smithsonian Magazine:
Ken Howard:
You have to back up and think about what was happening at the time. Nationally, in 1962, you have James Meredith, the first black to attend the University of Mississippi, that was national news. In May 1963, Bull Connor with the dogs and the fire hoses, turning them on people, front-page news. And then in June, that summer, you have Medgar Evers shot down in the South, and his body actually on view on 14th Street at a church in D.C. So you had a group of individuals who had been not just oppressed, but discriminated against and killed because of their color. The March on Washington symbolized a rising up, if you will, of people who were saying enough is enough.

John Lewis, Chairman of SNCC (later a 13-term congressman from Georgia)
A. Philip Randolph had this idea in the back of his mind for many years. When he had his chance to make another demand for a March on Washington, he told President Kennedy in a meeting at the White House in June 1963 that we were going to march on Washington. It was the so-called “Big Six,” Randolph, James Farmer, Whitney Young, Roy Wilkins, Martin Luther King Jr. and myself. Out of the blue Mr. Randolph spoke up. He was the dean of black leadership, the spokesperson. He said “Mr. President, the black masses are restless and we are going to march on Washington.” President Kennedy didn’t like the idea, hearing people talk about a march on Washington. He said, “If you bring all these people to Washington, won’t there be violence and chaos and disorder and we will never get a civil rights bill through the Congress?” Mr. Randolph responded, “Mr. President, this will be an orderly, peaceful, nonviolent protest.”

EVENTS PROCEEDING THE MARCH:

1) THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION: Decreed by President Abraham Lincoln on 1 January 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation declared slaves in all confederate states then at war with the Union “forever free” and made them eligible for paid military service in the Union Army.
2) 100 years later: 1961/62 - MLK In 1961 made multiple appeals to President John F. Kennedy to issue a second Emancipation Proclamation to outlaw segregation in commemoration of the centennial of the original document.

3) December 1961 telegram to Kennedy called for “a second Emancipation Proclamation to free all Negroes from second class citizenship” in line with the “defense of democratic principles and practices here” in the United States (King, 18 December 1961).

4) On 17 May 1962, the sixth anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, King sent Kennedy a 75-page appeal to request a “national rededication to the principles of the Emancipation Proclamation and for an executive order prohibiting segregation” (King, 17 May 1962). Clarence B. Jones, King’s legal advisor, recommended that the Southern Christian Leadership Conference send out copies of this appeal to all the major national organizations before 22 September 1962, the 100th anniversary of the earlier issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation as a military order.
5) At the 28 August 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, as King stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to deliver his “I Have a Dream” speech, he noted that the Emancipation Proclamation gave hope to black slaves. The following year Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as a concrete step toward fulfilling the promise of the Emancipation Proclamation.