Kerry James Marshall (b. 1955)

We Mourn Our Loss #3 (1999) is at once an homage to "The Holy Trinity of the Civil Rights Movement," President John F. Kennedy, Senator Robert Kennedy, and Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and a call for remembrance. A standard decorative fare, and semi-religious icon in the homes of working-class African-American and Latino families during the Civil Rights era, Marshall's banner-like painting evokes the ghostly images of contemporary African-American youths. By juxtaposing powerful symbols of the Civil Rights Movement with the ongoing realities of oppression, Kerry James Marshall's work forces us to reexamine our current condition, as well as drive the act of remembering.