Truth Crushed to the Earth Will Rise Again

Linda Beaumont

King County Courthouse

Linda Beaumont’s marble and terrazzo artwork restores the lobby floor of the courthouse to its original 1916 layout while honoring the County’s namesake, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Beaumont used Flip Schulke's photograph of the Aug. 28, 1963, March on Washington as the basis of the inset image at the center of the piece, capturing its essence in the soft focus of collective memory.

It is an image etched in many of our minds, and now it is etched into stone. The photograph from the March on Washington reminds us of a time in our history when citizens from cities and counties all throughout the United States were passionately involved in the Civil Rights movement. –Linda Beaumont

The floor’s black terrazzo contains fragments of Venetian glass and marble, and the white terrazzo shimmers with flecks of mother of pearl and mirror covered in amber glass. Two smaller circles in the central lobby are made of polychrome marble arranged in a classic radiating-spiral design. Beaumont also used the amber glass in a pair of wall-mounted pieces: a clock integrated with Douglas Cooper’s murals and an etched glass portrait of Dr. King. The portrait is also based on a photo by Schulke, who traveled with King during the 1960s and recorded some of the most remarkable images from the Civil Rights era.

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To celebrate the power of Dr. King’s words, the artist included three quotes in the floor design—including the one this work uses as its title. The others? “Never allow it to be said that you are silent onlookers, detached spectators, but that you are involved participants in the struggle to make justice a reality,” and, “Peace is not merely the absence of tension, but it is the presence of justice.”

Based in Langley, WA, Beaumont creates paintings, sculptures, and large-scale installations for public spaces, including 4Culture commissions at Harborview Medical Center, the King County Courthouse, Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, and Bellevue City Hall.