MLK marches with Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Eric Garner and slain officer on cover of The New Yorker

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The January 26th edition of The New Yorker imagines a world where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. marches arm in arm with some of the most polarizing news figures from 2014 and the #BlackLivesMatter movement.

The publication is known for it’s controversial covers, but this one entitled “The Dream of Reconciliation” shows Dr. King with Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Trayvon Martin and New York City Police officer Wenjian Liu — who was killed by a gunman in December — peacefully walking with arms linked as an American flag waves in the background.

Artist Barry Blitt says he was inspired by the photographs of the Selma-to-Montgomery march that have gained popularity due to the release of the Selma movie.

He told the magazine:

“It struck me that King’s vision was both the empowerment of African-Americans, the insistence on civil rights, but also the reconciliation of people who seemed so hard to reconcile.

In New York and elsewhere, the tension between the police and the policed is at the center of things. Like Trayvon Martin and Eric Garner, Michael Brown and Officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos, Martin Luther King was taken way too early.

It is hard to believe things would have got as bad as they are if he was still around today.”

Blitt’s powerful imagery has gotten mixed reactions; with some applauding it as a reminder of what this country needs and others critiquing it for oversimplifying the legacy of MLK.

Grio fam, what do you think about the cover?