A portrait of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. by the Jerusalem artist Benjamin Amar, was presented to the Congressional Black Caucus last week to celebrate the successful Congressional campaign to establish a national holiday honoring the slain civil rights leader.
The presentation was made by the Committee for the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Forest in Israel to Rep. Julian Dixon (D. Calif.), chairman of the Black Caucus and Rep. Louis Stokes (D. Ohio), president of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation. The portrait had been displayed at a ceremony in Galilee last August 28 commemorating the 20th anniversary of the 1963 civil rights march on Washington led by King.
The 10,000-tree memorial forest was created by Americans seven years ago with 38 trees, one for each year of King’s life at the time he was assassinated. When the forest was first established, every Black and Jewish member of Congress agreed to become an honorary sponsor of the committee and this practice has continued.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
