{"id":2962,"date":"2021-06-02T16:11:13","date_gmt":"2021-06-02T16:11:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/speccoll\/?p=2962"},"modified":"2021-06-09T14:25:32","modified_gmt":"2021-06-09T14:25:32","slug":"martin-luther-king-statue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/speccoll\/2021\/06\/02\/martin-luther-king-statue\/","title":{"rendered":"Martin Luther King Statue"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Statue of Martin Luther King Jr in King\u2019s Quad, Newcastle University (\u00a9 Phil Roughley)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The two-metre-tall bronze statue of Martin Luther King Jr, situated in the inner courtyard of the Armstrong Building, was erected in 2017 to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of Dr King\u2019s visit to Newcastle to accept an honorary degree. It stands in the King’s Quad, next to King’s Hall, the setting for Dr King’s honorary degree ceremony in 1967. The statue now forms a focal point of the procession route that students at the University take at the end of their graduation ceremony. The first major art commission by the University since 1962, the statue was unveiled by Ambassador Andrew Young, a close friend and colleague of Dr King who accompanied him to Newcastle in 1967.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ambassador Andrew Young; Professor Chris Day, and Nigel Boonham in front of the Martin Luther King statue (\u00a9 Newcastle University)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The base of the statue is encircled by bronze lettering inset into Caithness paving, featuring text taken from the civil rights leader\u2019s powerful acceptance speech in which he spoke of the \u2018three urgent and grave problems\u2019 facing the world: war, poverty and racism. It was Dr King\u2019s last public address outside the US before he was assassinated, barely six months later. The statue was created by sculptor Nigel Boonham who spent months researching Dr King before deciding on the statue\u2019s final pose, which he described as, \u201cDr King standing firm with legs apart, holding his hat and leaning back slightly. It appeared to me that Dr King was braced for whatever came his way.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Statue of Martin Luther King Jr in King\u2019s Quad, Newcastle University (\u00a9 Phil Roughley)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The statue\u2019s installation and unveiling\u00a0were\u00a0significant milestones\u00a0in\u00a0Freedom City\u00a02017,<\/em>\u00a0a year-long\u00a0city-wide\u00a0programme of events\u00a0which\u00a0commemorated\u00a0the anniversary\u00a0of Dr King\u2019s visit to Newcastle.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photograph of Martin Luther King signing the University’s visitors’ book 1967, NUA\/052589\/05, Newcastle University Archives, Newcastle University Special Collections, GB 186<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Learn more about Martin Luther King\u2019s visit to Newcastle in 1967 is this online exhibition<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sources<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Newcastle University Press Office (2017) Statue unveiled in honour of Martin Luther King Jr.<\/em> Available at: https:\/\/www.ncl.ac.uk\/press\/articles\/archive\/2017\/11\/martinlutherkingstatueunveiled\/ <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Want to learn more about the history of Newcastle University campus? Why not explore all the articles in our Campus Tour blog series<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The two-metre-tall bronze statue of Martin Luther King Jr, situated in the inner courtyard of the Armstrong Building, was erected in 2017 to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of Dr King\u2019s visit to Newcastle to accept an honorary degree. It stands in the King’s Quad, next to King’s Hall, the setting for Dr King’s honorary degree ceremony in … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5894,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[716],"tags":[718],"class_list":["post-2962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-campus-tour","tag-campustour"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/speccoll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/speccoll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/speccoll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/speccoll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5894"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/speccoll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2962"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/speccoll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2962\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3234,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/speccoll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2962\/revisions\/3234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/speccoll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/speccoll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/speccoll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}