Little is known about this photograph I found at the Alabama Department of Archives except that it was taken by Jim Peppler of the Southern Courier outside Martin Luther King, Jr.'s funeral, April 9, 1968. The sign on the dog reads, "'I HAD A DREAM,' amen, amen."
When I first saw the sign, I worried it was mocking King's words. Then I realized that might be partially due to the fact that it is a white gentleman holding the dog. He reminded me of the men holding attack dogs in Birmingham (I wrote about last year). Reverse racism, no? We still have a long way to go in this country. But I like to think that this man was ahead of his time and the sign is a thoughtful tribute to a leader who used words, not violence, to put our nation on the right path.
1.19.10 Update: Many readers wrote me that they thought it was a black man not a white man holding the dog. I stand corrected, and perhaps color blind.
