Today is Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a federal holiday first observed in 1986. The late Dr. King was a pastor,
humanitarian, activist and the leader of the Civil Rights Movement in the
United States. His words, actions and leadership shaped the world we live in
today. Without him this country very well could have stay segregated suffering
in it’s own inequality.
Although Dr. King is widely known for his leadership in the
south some may not know that many of the grass roots of the Civil Rights
Movement started right in Amenia, N.Y. Dr. King frequently visited the
Troutbeck Estate in Amenia. Owned at the time by Amy and Joel Spingarn the intellectuals
attracted liberals and innovators to their estate including Pan Africanist
W.E.B Dubois. A friend of Joel’s DuBois even visited Troutbeck to hammer out the
fundaments of the NAACP of which Joel was the second president of the civil
rights organization.
Recently I got the opportunity to photograph a historical treasure at Troutbeck a letter written to Amy
Spingarn from Dr. King sent in 1957 to the Spingarn’s home in New York City. The
letter was written after Joel Spingarn had passed away. The beautifully written letter was to express
appreciation to the Spingarns and all the board of directors of the NAACP for
choosing Dr. King as the recipient of the Spingarn Medal of the year. In the
letter King is extremely humbled by the Spingarn’s actions in the civil rights
movement. A section of the letter reads, “ Let me express my appreciation to
you for the great part that you and your late husband have played in the
struggle for freedom and human dignity for all people. The names of the
Spingarns will go down in history as symbol of the struggle for freedom and
justice.”
It was a honor to photograph and hold the blown up copy of the letter which remains displayed in the
library at Troutbeck. I had no idea that Amenia had such deep civil rights activism roots in this small rural town which I have frequently visit and cover for the newspaper.
Happy MLK Day everyone!
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