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 Man's
Inhumanity to Man
Artist:
William Walker
Commissioned
by: Unknown
Location:
47th Street at Calumet
Medium:
Mural
Commentary:
Interworked with Michael Caton's "Wall of Daydreaming",
this mural is so badly faded that you have to look hard and long
to make it out. When you do that, you will find the work disturbing.
On two sides are images of powerful forces of evil: the Klu Klux
Klan on the left and threatening black figures are on the right.
Both seem to be dominated by hatred, while in the middle are the
rest of us being played like the figures on a chess board. Martin
Luther King, John Kennedy and Malcolm X all lie dead on the board.
The picture seems to give almost unbearable power to the forces
of evil, both black and white. You might compare it with Walker's
"Childhood is Without Prejudice" at 56th and Stony Island.
It was done only two years later but seems to view the world in
a wholly different way.
William Walker is the "godfather" of African American
mural art in Chicago. His works are among the most admired and
studied of all.
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