Icons of the Civil Rights Movement exhibit 

In September 2008, Brandeis University hosted "Icons of the Civil Rights Movement," an exhibition of works by Massachusetts artist Pamela Chatterton-Purdy depicting figures from one of the most important eras in the history of the United States.

“Icons of the Civil Rights Movement” was sponsored by the Intercultural Center and MLK Scholars and Friends, and cosponsored by the Office of the Arts, Chaplaincy, Cultural Productions Program, and the Peace, Conflict, and Coexistence Studies Program.  The exhibition was hosted by Library & Technology Services at the Goldfarb Library.  

The exhibition featured seventeen paintings by Pamela Chatterton-Purdy, who has been involved in social justice throughout her career. The paintings, created with handmade paper, oil paints and wooden frames found at a local dump near her home on Cape Cod, highlighted individuals who gave their lives to the Civil Rights movement. Some of the subjects were well known--Martin Luther King, Jr., Emmett Till, Rosa Parks, Coretta Scott King--and others less so.

Chatterton-Purdy created these pieces in just a few short months in order to commemorate the 40th year since the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968.  Previous to coming to Brandeis, the exhibition had been shown in galleries throughout New England, including the Rites and Reason Theatre in the department of Africana Studies at Brown University, and at Gordon College.  Chatterton-Purdy continues to find educational institutions and other community-based organizations to display this important exhibition.

Official press release for Icons of the Civil Rights Movement exhibit