Celebrating black history

"Can we make a collage to use for the Perspectives page CP this weekend?" a hopeful pair of opinion editors each asked me separately on Tuesday. "No problem. Get me a list..." I responded both times.

I always think those things are going to be easy. Slap some photos onto other photos. Voila! Instant centerpiece.

Of course, now that the whole thing is behind me, I can think of at least three ways I could have done it "simpler." A bunch of stacked black-and-photos with IDs in red boxes on top of them, a la Vanity Fair and the like. A checkerboard of photo/ID pairs. A combination of the two ... sorta.

But you know, when you're on your 13th consecutive hour at the office — and even the morning after a semi-decent night's sleep after said long work day — it can be difficult to see your way out of the tunnel you created for yourself at the beginning of the project.

So I ended up with this collage. I, personally, like the glowing red super-hero-esque Muhammed Ali. I'm sure others will wonder what I was thinking. I tried turning him other colors, especially after I put a stylized photo of Rosa Parks, in her red shirt, very nearby. But he just didn't look quite so magnificent unless he was red.

And why is Frederick Douglass blue, you might wonder? Well, you'd be a little sad, too, if you were dead before it was cool to be black. ... Did I go too far? Forgive me. I tend to get punchy after a few very long days jammed between some less-than-appealing hour-long-plus commutes in the rain.

In hindsight, since I had to rap up quick and things weren't ending exactly right, I really should have had the desk tone the thing b/w. It probably would have been better, and I wouldn't have to explain why I made Ali the ani-Hulk. Grrrr.


Original phots from Getty Images, wire services, and web

Bottom row, from left: Rosa Parks, Muhammed Ali and Richard Pryor. Middle row: Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. Back row: George Washington Carver, President Barrack Obama, Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass (in blue) and Ruby Bridges (in white).

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Follow-up note: No one gave me even an ounce of flack for the red Ali. As a matter of fact, I got quite a few compliments on the illustration. I guess you just never can tell what's going to strike people as odd — or not.