More to Know

1965 Marches and Voting Rights Act

Activists and allies from across the country came to Selma to participate in the 1965 marches. Some of the protests’ key Black leaders and participants included: John Lewis (1940–2020), Reverend Hosea Williams (1926–2000), Amelia Boynton Robinson (1911–2015), and Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968).

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 banned discriminatory voting policies—rooted in anti-Black racism—that were common throughout the south- ern United States in the century following the end of the American Civil War. Congress passed the Act in August, and by the end of the year, 250,000 Black Americans had successfully registered to vote.

R. T. Haines Halsey

Halsey is perhaps best remembered for his prominent role in the creation of the American Wing in New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art—one of the most significant collections of American art. When it opened in 1924, the Wing showcased paintings, sculpture, furniture, ceramics, and metalworks from the 1600s and 1700s, aiming to foster a distinct national identity for American citizens and arriving immigrants.

Dakota Access Pipeline and Standing Rock Protests

In 2016, protests against the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL)—led by the Lakota and Dakota Nations of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe—gained national and international attention. DAPL, a 1,172-mile subterranean pipeline, transports crude oil from North Dakota to Illinois. The proposed route, designed to minimize any potential threat to the drinking water supply for the state’s largest city (Bismarck), directed the pipeline beneath Lake Oahe near the Standing Rock Reservation. The Tribe argued that developing the project at this location not only violated earlier treaty rights but would adversely impact those currently living on the reservation. Opposition to the pipeline gained support from other Indigenous Nations and non-Indigenous protestors alike, which eventually was met with strict and occasionally violent repression by law enforcement. Despite the protests, pipeline construction continued, and DAPL has been in operation since 2017.

Uranium

Chemist Martin Klaproth (German, 1743–1817) is credited with the discovery of uranium in 1789. As a heavy metal with radioactive capabilities, this material has a complicated history. Energy generation, production of nuclear weapons, and even artistic processes—such as the coloration of glass and ceramics—have relied on uranium as an essential element. In the United States, particularly in New Mexico, Utah, Colorado, and Arizona, uranium mining peaked in the 1950s. Without proper safety protections and protocols, exposure to the metal can chronically and, in some cases, fatally impact a person’s health. Due to a lack of ventilation, protective equipment, and communication about radiation from those in charge, many Diné miners and communities in Arizona experienced such effects firsthand. Representatives of the miners and the Diné Nation have made multiple congressional appeals for compensation over the decades, which were often met with various institutional barriers and varying degrees of success and implementation.

Thomas Cole’s “Oxbow”

“The Oxbow” refers to a famous work by Thomas Cole (American, 1801–1848), titled View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, after a Thunderstorm. Made in 1836, Cole’s painting depicted a sharp, U-shaped bend in the Connecticut River, earning the nickname “The Oxbow.” Cole himself was concerned about the environmental impacts of industrialization, adding greater irony to the signage featured in Scott’s Near the Oxbow.

Cincinnati’s 1967 Race Riots

These riots were just one in a series of 159 race riots that erupted across the country during what is known as “The Long Hot Summer.” These nation- wide protests were driven by Black communities’ frustration over systemic injustices resulting in a lack of job opportunities, poor housing, and unjust policing of Black citizens. These protests were often met with a militarized police presence, including in Cincinnati’s Avondale neighborhood. On June 11, 1967, Cincinnati police arrested a Black demonstrator, Peter Frakes, for blocking a sidewalk near the Abraham Lincoln statue at Reading Road and Rockdale Avenue. Frakes carried a sign supporting his cousin, Posteal Laskey, Jr., who prosecutors had identified as the Cincinnati Strangler and convicted of murdering a white woman. The next day, at the same corner, a protest against the police’s detention of Frakes turned violent. The governor deployed Ohio National Guard troops to deescalate the situation, but before the riots subsided on June 15, one person was dead, 63 injured, and 404 arrested.