This drawing of the civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was reproduced on the cover of Time magazine on March 19, 1965. Twelve days prior, on what would come to be known as Bloody Sunday, state troopers in Selma, Alabama, had attacked with billy clubs and tear gas hundreds of nonviolent protestors marching with King and future congressman John Lewis in support of voting rights. For an article on activism in Selma, the editors of Time commissioned Shahn, a Jewish American artist and labor activist, to create a portrait of King for the cover. Shahn elected to portray the reverend in mid-speech, pairing his line drawing with a loosely applied ink wash, explaining, “This is King today. He isn’t as placid as he was a year ago. I admire the man immensely. He moved more people by his oratory than anyone else I can think of.”

—Text taken from the Carter Handbook (2023)