The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of May 31, 2026

A vertically oriented color screenprint with bold outlines depicts Martin Luther King, Jr., a Black man with a mustache. Shown from the waist up behind a grid of white bars, he wears a blue shirt and holds a white pen and handwritten paper. Dark vertical stripes fill the background. Below the image, pencil inscriptions read "PP IX" and "faith Ringgold 7/6/07".

Martin Luther King, Jr., Letter from Birmingham City Jail

2007

Raven Fine Arts Editions

America

color screenprint

Image: 29.4 x 22.1 cm (11 9/16 x 8 11/16 in.); Sheet: 45.5 x 35.6 cm (17 15/16 x 14 in.)

Sundry Art - Miscellaneous Fund 2025.165

Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

This print is the product of a collaboration between Ringgold and her longtime master printer, Curlee Raven Holton. The two met in Harlem in 1992 and worked together from that point until her death in 2024.

Description

This print belongs to a series based on Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1963 “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” drafted while King was imprisoned after participating in a nonviolent demonstration against segregation. Produced in flat planes of color that evoke the aesthetic of quilts, a medium in which Faith Ringgold had a lifelong interest, the print presents King looking outward past the bars of a jail cell while holding his pen and a draft of his letter. The image aligns with Ringgold’s aim to address issues of race throughout American history through her work as an artist, educator, and activist.

{{cite web|title=Martin Luther King, Jr., Letter from Birmingham City Jail|url=false|author=Faith Ringgold, Curlee Raven Holton, Raven Fine Arts Editions|year=2007|access-date=31 May 2026|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2025.165