As we honor the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights movement today, it is worth remembering that the campaign to honor Dr. King faced significant opposition from Republicans. Then-president Ronald Reagan was among the primary opponents of the bill to create a holiday honoring Dr. King, believing that it would “open the door to many other groups seeking similar holidays,” as were former Vice President Dick Cheney and former Texas Congressman and libertarian leader Ron Paul.
Former Senator Jesse Helms (R-NC) famously led a vigorous campaign against the holiday on the grounds that King was a “communist sympathizer.” In the 1980s, debate raged in Congress, with many Republicans arguing that the nation had been “misled into believing MLK was a great man.” Even today, the Republican-dominated states of Arkansas, Alabama, and Mississippi observe the holiday as jointly celebrating “Martin Luther King and Robert E. Lee’s birthdays.”
Indeed there are nine current members of Congress – all Republicans – who voted against the creation of MLK day as a national holiday in 1983.
#DefendDACA: Donald Trump announced that he is repealing the program known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), which allows immigrants who entered the country as minors to receive a renewable two-year period of deferred action from deportation and eligibility for a work permit. Many undocumented minors will be at risk of being deported to a country they know nothing about. New York, a city of immigrants, showed up at Foley Square to stand with immigrants and defend DACA.
Brooklyn-based Zaria Forman creates incredibly realistic drawings of Antarctica’s icebergs, producing large pastel works that capture the sculptural beauty of the quickly shrinking forms. This past winter, the artist had the opportunity to be side-by-side with the the towering ice shelfs, observing their magnitude aboard the National Geographic Explorer during a four week art residency.
The residency gave her the opportunity to further embody the natural formations, providing a new perspective to create her large-scale drawings.