Bust of Martin Luther King Jr. (Alston) facts for kids
This bronze bust of Martin Luther King Jr. is a famous sculpture. A bust is a sculpture that shows only the head and shoulders of a person. It was created by an African-American artist named Charles Alston in 1970. This was two years after Martin Luther King Jr. passed away.
A church leader, Reverend Donald S. Harrington, asked Alston to create the bust. He paid $5,000 for it. In 1970, five bronze copies of the bust were made. Each one is about 32 centimeters (12.6 inches) tall.
One of these busts became part of the Smithsonian Institution's National Portrait Gallery in Washington D.C. This happened in 1974. Since 2000, this bust has been on loan to the White House. This started during the time of President Bill Clinton. It was first shown in the White House Library. Many believe it was the first time a sculpture of an African American was publicly displayed there.
In 2009, President Barack Obama moved the bust to the Oval Office. This is the President's main office. He displayed it next to a bust of Abraham Lincoln. It took the place of a sculpture of Winston Churchill. That Churchill bust had been loaned to President George W. Bush. In 2017, President Donald Trump also kept the King bust in the Oval Office. He added another Churchill bust there too. When President Joe Biden started his term in 2021, the bust of Martin Luther King Jr. stayed in a special spot in the Oval Office. Today, it is displayed near a bust of Robert F. Kennedy. Both sculptures are placed on either side of the fireplace.
Another copy of Alston's bust was given to the National Museum of African American History and Culture in January 2016.
See also
- Civil rights movement in popular culture
- Art in the White House
- List of memorials to Martin Luther King Jr.
- Martin Luther King Jr. (Wilson sculpture), another bust of King, displayed in the United States Capitol rotunda
- Bust of Martin Luther King, Jr. (Jersey City)
