The Jan. 15 cover of The New Yorker will feature a familiar face in a powerful way. Seahawks defensive lineman Michael Bennett will be featured in an illustration kneeling alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick.
The cover’s illustrator, Mark Ulriksen, said his inspiration for the piece stemmed from the question: “What would King be doing if he were around today?”
The cover’s title “In Creative Battle,” draws from King Jr.’s Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech in 1964, when he opened by saying: “I accept the Nobel Prize for Peace at a moment when 22 million Negroes of the United States of America are engaged in a creative battle to end the long night of racial injustice.