New Flint mural pays homage to civil rights icons Martin Luther King Jr. and John Lewis

FLINT, MI – A mural on the north side of town showing the Rev. Martin Luther Jr. walking arm in arm with civil rights leaders and activists, including the late U.S. Representative John Lewis, in Selma, Alabama is complete and ready for admirers.

The mural on the side of a former home improvement store on Martin Luther King Avenue south of Pasadena Avenue was created through an idea from the MLK Avenue Plus Block Club and the direction and financial support of Flint Public Art Project and Keep Genesee County Beautiful.

“We worked with (MLK ​​Avenue Plus Block Club) on a few workshops,” said Joe Schipani, executive director of the Flint Public Art Project. “When they decided to put a mural on the side of the building, we did a couple of workshops with the neighborhood and the artist to discuss what they wanted.”

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The Flint Art Project, a non-profit organization that uses art to activate free spaces, commissioned artist Kevin “Scraps” Burdick to do the work. The art project raised $ 5,000 into the project, Schipani said.

“The timing of the vote and all that was going on – the Black Lives Matter movement – they felt this would be a great display of what they wanted in town and what they wanted in the neighborhood,” said Schipani on the results of the discussions.

Planning for the mural project began in June, around the time George Floyd died in police custody in Minneapolis. Floyd’s death sparked nationwide protests against police brutality, including several marches in Flint and the surrounding area, including Grand Blanc and Lapeer.

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Schipani added the idea of ​​showing images of King and Lewis, which spoke volumes for the neighborhood due to the climate of racial relations.

35-year-old Burdick has painted all his life. It took him 40 days to complete the project.

“Kevin is a great artist,” said Schipani. “It’s great to work with.”

Pointing out the importance of the timing of the mural, Burdick noted that the 1965 march was intended to secure voting rights for blacks and other minorities across the country.

“It was two weeks before the election, it was around the middle of October when I painted it and that was the march to get voting rights when Lyndon B. Johnson signed the proxy bill, so that was cool,” Burdick told the representation of the mural. “I knew about the walks in Selma, but the mural made me investigate more deeply.”

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On March 7, 1965, around 600 people, including Lewis, wanted to march from Selma, Alabama, to Montgomery, Alabama, to get the vote. However, according to the National Park Service, they were repulsed six blocks.

Lewis, who attended the march as chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and served in the US House of Representatives for more than 30 years, died in July 2020 at the age of 80.

The incident became known as “Bloody Sunday” as police used guns and tear gas on protesters and called on more than 50 people, including Lewis, for treatment.

King was absent during the incident but coordinated several other marches as part of the same effort that resulted in the 1965 Suffrage Act.

The Law banning the disenfranchisement of black voters was signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson in August 1965.

King was murdered outside the Lorraine Hotel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968. King was 39 years old at the time of his death.

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