Muralist Paints Face of Hope for Youth : Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary Is Getting Image of Its Namesake

Amid drug deals and gang fights in Southeast San Diego, an artist is trying to keep the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream alive.

At Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School, Eddie Edwards of San Diego is painting a two-story-high mural that he says will help show children that they can turn their own dreams into reality.

King’s face is the focal point of the mural, which is being painted on the east wall of the school’s auditorium. Below him, children of different races play with building blocks with the words friendship , love , peace and we shall overcome inscribed on them. Edwards says he hopes the mural will make a stronger impression on the children than do the drug deals that take place around the school.

“If you touch hands with the youth, you touch hands with the future,” he said.

Edwards sees art as an alternative to drugs and crime and explained that he decided to portray King in the mural in the hope that children will see they can follow the slain civil rights leader’s dream to improve their lives.

The mural, which Edwards started in late June, faces the school playground at 31st Street, where he said drug dealers stand during school hours.

Dana Flowers, a teacher at the school, said she too hopes that King’s positive image will turn the children away from drugs.

Several children have already shown interest in the mural and have helped Edwards with it, listening to him talk about King and what the painting represents. The children are part of a special summer class geared toward raising the level of achievement of black youngsters.

The mural was made possible as part of a $3-million gift by art patron Muriel Gluck to the San Diego Unified School District in 1988. The gift was distributed between the district’s 107 elementary schools and five middle schools to fund the “Young at Art” program.

The program was designed to introduce the visual arts to the city’s children with the help of several local artists and the San Diego Museum of Art, which received $1 million from the donation. Edwards was hired by the San Diego Unified School District.

The school’s name, which was changed in 1984 from Stockton Elementary, also played a big role in deciding on the theme for the mural, Edwards said.

“We don’t have a lot of heroes in the community, but, if people don’t give you your monuments and statues, you have to make your own,” he said.

Completion of the mural is scheduled for late August.