FLINT, MI — A mural on the city’s north side that depicts Rev. Martin Luther Jr. walking arm-in-arm with civil rights leaders and activists, including the late U.S. Rep. John Lewis, in Selma, Alabama is complete and ready for admirers.
The mural painted onto the side of a former hardware store, located at Martin Luther King Avenue, just south of Pasadena Avenue, came to fruition through an idea from MLK Avenue Plus Block Club, as well as direction and monetary support from the Flint Public Art Project and Keep Genesee County Beautiful.
“We worked with (MLK Avenue Plus Block Club) on a couple workshops,” Joe Schipani, executive director of Flint Public Art Project, said. “Once they decided they wanted 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 nonprofit that uses art to activate vacant spaces, commissioned artist Kevin “Scraps” Burdick to do the work. The art project put $5,000 towards the project, Schipani said.
“The timing with the voting and everything going on -- the Black Lives Matter movement, they felt that would be a great representation of what they wanted in the city and what they wanted in the neighborhood,” said Schipani of what resulted from the discussions.
Planning for the mural project began in June, near the time when George Floyd died while in police custody in Minneapolis. Floyd’s death sparked nationwide protests over police brutality, including several marches in Flint and the surrounding areas including Grand Blanc and Lapeer.
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Schipani added the idea of depicting images of King and Lewis spoke volumes for the neighborhood because of the climate of race relations.
Burdick, 35, has been painting his whole life. It took him 40 hours to complete the project.
“Kevin is a great artist,” Schipani. “He’s great to work with.”
Burdick noted the significance of the timing of the mural, noting that the march in 1965 was to secure voting rights for Black people and other minorities across the country.
“It was two weeks before the election, it was right about mid-October when I painted it, and that was the march for getting voting rights, when Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act, so that was cool,” Burdick said of the mural’s depiction. “I knew about the walks in Selma, but doing the mural forced me to do deeper research.”
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On March 7, 1965, roughly 600 people including Lewis aimed to march from Selma, Alabama to Montgomery, Alabama for voting rights but they were beaten back six blocks into the gathering, according to the National Park Service.
Lewis, who took part in the march as a leader for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and served in the U.S. House of Representatives for more than 30 years, died in July 2020 at 80 years old.
The incident became known as “Bloody Sunday,” as police used weapons and tear gas on marchers, requiring more than 50 people -- including Lewis -- to receive treatment.
King was not present during the incident, but he coordinated several others marches as part of the same effort that led to the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
The act prohibiting measures aimed at disenfranchising Black voters was signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson in August 1965.
King was assassinated April 4, 1968 outside the Lorraine Hotel in Memphis, Tennessee. King was 39 years old at the time of his death.
Read more:
Michigan leaders react to death of civil rights icon John Lewis
Saginaw woman who marched in Selma 55 years ago says there’s still racial inequality
Flint-area police join protesters marching to seek justice for George Floyd
Popular Flint mural artist remembered as selfless, multi-faceted talent