Brandon Doeringer, Nathan Bales and Brennan Poulson

 

 

Background Information

 

In February 1965 in Marion, Alabama, as peaceful protesters were demonstrating in favor of voting rights for blacks, an Alabama state trooper shot and killed a young African American man. In response the leader of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, James Bevel, who had also been working with Martin Luther King, Jr. called for a march from Selma to the state capitol in Montgomery. In an event that became known as Bloody Sunday, the marchers were beaten and turned away by troopers bearing whips, nightsticks, and tear gas, forcing them back to Selma.  After that a second march was organized on March 9th led by Martin Luther King, Jr.

King led marchers to the county line and kneeled to pray and then turned back because he was adhering to a federal injunction while seeking protection for the march. That night James Reeb, a Unitarian Universalist minister that had joined them from Boston, was attacked and killed. The violence of these two events sparked national outrage. Eventually President Lyndon Johnson worked with Congress to pass a voting rights law.

 

The second event that was used in this piece was the shooting of John Crawford. This event took place in 2015 in Beavercreek, Ohio when Crawford was shopping in a Walmart and picked up a toy BB gun that looked like an AR-15. Police were called in and shot Crawford. Protests occurred afterwards because many believed that Crawford was shot for nothing and without warning. Many thought that the officers should be charged with voluntary manslaughter. The officers were placed on administrative leave. Following the shooting, there were several peaceful protest demonstrations including some organized by Black Lives Matter groups and a “Justice for All” march organized by Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network in which thousands gathered to march on Washington and hear the parents of multiple African American shooting victims speak. Since then, in 2014, Ohio State Representative Alicia Reece proposed a “John Crawford’s Law” that would prevent toy guns being designed to look like real guns. National conversations about gun rights and race as well as police practices have been in the spotlight.

 

The artists feel that these two events illustrate that peaceful demonstrations can carry powerful messages and lead to change.