Martyrs

a brief explanation.

The purpose of this book is not to glorify or romanticize those who have fallen- much of this has already been done.  This is about questioning what is martyrdom.  It is not merely the unjust and savage murder of one individual by another, but the illegitimate authority of a supposed moral superior- be it a person, people, or judicial system- which feels it can justify or ignore the killing of an individual for social or legal deviance.

The cultural justification for murder, by those who kill and those who are willing to die for a greater cause, is carried through generation after generation in an ever increasing willingness to justify murder and death over abstract ideologies.

Many, however, are killed in this world for simply being born as they are.

materials.

Drawings on rives bfk lightweight with coffee, ink, gesso, acrylic, intaglio, colored pencil, graphite.

Rachel Corrie

Corrie, a 23 year old peace activist, stood before an Israeli Defense Forces bulldozer to protest and prevent the demolition of Palestinian homes.

There are conflicting reports on whether the heavily armored vehicle with several blindspots could properly see Corrie, but intentional or not, she was run over- her chest collapsed, back bones cracked, and lungs filled with fluid.

The death of one young white American woman brought unprecedented U.S. and international coverage to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Alexandros Grigoropoulos

December 2008, Grigoropoulos, a 15 year old boy was fatally shot by Greek police.

Two police officers within Exarchia* were engaged in verbal arguments with local youths.  The officers were given orders to retreat from Exarchia, but they disobeyed.

Enraged with the rebellious neighborhood youths, when Grigoropoulos and a small group neared the police they were met with verbal abuse.

While no youth was armed or posed any threat- one rageful officer took out his weapon and shot Grigoropoulos dead.

Following the murder the nation saw a month of riots in solidarity with Grigoropoulos.

* – A neighborhood in Athens, Greece and well known anarchist haven.  Police not welcome.

Matthew Shepard

Two young men offered Shepard a ride  home from a bar in Laramie, Wyoming.

In the ensuing trial the men initially attempted “gay panic defense,”* but their girlfriends contradicted this- asserting what happened that night was a premeditated homophobic robbery and assault.

From the moment Shepard accepted a ride from Russell Henderson and Aaron McKinney he would not be seen again for 18 hours, until a jogger mistook his beaten and disfigured form for a scarecrow.

Shepard was robbed, pistol-whipped, tortured, and tied to a fence left to die.  It was said Shepard’s face was entirely encrusted with blood except for where his tears washed the mess away.

* – international defense that it is “understandable” for straight men to kill a man for coming onto them.

Marsha P Johnson

Black transgender activist and local celebrity in the NYC art and queer scene of the 60s-90s.

Johnson had been at the stonewall riots in her youth.  In the early 70s Johnson cofounded a home to support, feed, and clothe young queens in the lower east side.

In 1992, Johnson’s body was found floating in the Hudson River.  Police refused to investigate and ruled it a suicide.

The impoverished black sharecroppers with syphilis in Tuskegee, Alabama.
The Tuskegee syphilis experiment was an unethical clinical study conducted between 1932 and 1972 in rural Alabama.  The U.S Public Health Service oversaw the natural progression of untreated syphilis on poor black folk while denying penicillin treatment which proved itself effective in the 1940s.

Patients were routinely lied to and told purely experimental observational procedures were special free treatment opportunities.

Most the 399 patients died of the disease while their lovers and babies were infected as well.

“For the most part, doctors and civil servants simply did their jobs.  Some merely followed orders, others worked for the glory of science.”  -Dr. John Heller.  Director of the Public Health Service’s Division of Venereal disease.

Fanya Baron

A Russian anarchist arrested in the 1920s Soviet crackdown on anarchism.  With her husband Aaron Baron, and his brother- a Bolshevik communist, she planned to free her husband from prison after her own successful escape.

The brother, however, betrayed them both.  She was executed for political dissent in 1921.

Bobby Jones

A homeless man residing in Orlando, Florida with a congenital heart condition.  Within the last six months of his life he had triple-bypass surgery.

The city of Orlando, unsympathetic to homelessness, embarked in 2006 upon stronger anti-homeless policies.  City workers in an effort to remove the homeless from the 408 overpass, gathered up their belongings, hurling them into city trucks and disposing of them, leaving the homeless with no reason to stay.

Among the items tossed in the trash was Jones’ heart medication.  Jones did not survive another month.

George W Lee

Minister and civil rights leader, Lee was assassinated in 1955.  Less than a month before his death, Lee was a main speaker at the Regional Council of Negro Leadership, gathering much coverage and described as having “electrified” the crowd.

Just before midnight a car pulled beside Lee’s vehicle.  The assailant fired 3 shotgun blasts shattering, Lee’s jaw and forcing him from the road.  Lee tried to make it to the hospital but died along the way.

The sheriff in “investigating” the scene- immediately called it a traffic accident and closed the case.

Harry T and Harriet V Moore

Harry Moore was a black teacher and founder of the first branch of the NAACP in Brevard county, Fl.  As state secretary of the Florida chapter of the NAACP he succeeded in increasing the registration of black voters to higher than any other southern state.

As early organizers for civil rights, the Moores were targets of white supremacy.

Christmas night, 1951, Moore and his wife were fatally injured by a bomb beneath their house.  It was their 25th wedding anniversary.