 Nellie Francis was an African American suffragist and Civil Rights Activist. You can read more about her at the Minnesota Historical Society website:
https://www3.mnhs.org/mnopedia/search/index/person/francis-nellie-1874-1969?hs_amp=true  Growing up in Minnesota, I had never heard Margot’s name. I think it is important to understand her impact on many spaces that so many of us navigate without thinking about barriers in our abelist world.
This obituary describes a portage that Margot completed and was my resource image for this portrait. https://www.greglais.com/post/margot-imdieke-cross-1956-2024 This is a small blurb about Margot for the Minnesota Council of Disability: She served as the State of Minnesota’s only accessibility specialist consulting on a range of notable projects, including the new Minnesota Senate Building, State Capitol Complex renovations, Target Field, U.S. Bank Stadium, CHS Field, Allianz Field, and Target Center renovations, to name a few. She authored expert opinions on countless administrative rules, state and federal access codes, the Rehabilitation Act, and so much more. In keeping with her love of the great outdoors, she championed significant accessibility investments in Minnesota State Parks and Trails. You can read her full remembrance here: https://www.disability.state.mn.us/2024/07/24/mcd-remembers-disability-rights-trailblazer-margot-imdieke-cross/ June 26th of this year was Margot Imdieke Cross Day: https://mn.gov/governor/assets/06.26.25%20Margot%20Imdieke%20Cross%20Day_tcm1055-694505.pdf  Ethel Ray Nance is a civil rights activist born in Duluth Minnesota in 1899
Her grand daughter Karen Nance wrote a biography about her life called Ethel Ray: Living in the White, Grey and Black. You can buy a copy of that book at @mninblackink. I copied a description of the biography below: https://inblackink.org/ethelray/ Ethel Ray: Living in the White, Gray, and Black by Karen Felecia Nance tells an amazing rites of passage story about Ethel Ray, one of the early African American residents in Duluth. Be a part of history as Karen Nance’s book chronicles the early life of her grandmother, Ethel Ray Nance for the very first time. Find out how a pivotal figure of the NAACP who worked closely with W.E.B. Du Bois, and the first colored woman to be part of the Minnesota Legislature, fought through racial injustice and the trials of being biracial during Minnesota’s most violent era for Black people. This biography tells the story of Ethel Ray and her family during her younger years during the early 1900s before most of her great accomplishments. Ethel Ray depicts the trials she faced during her education in a mostly white environment, the tension between whiteness and Blackness that existed among her and her siblings’ search for identity, and perhaps most importantly, her family’s experience to the Duluth Lynchings in 1920. This book achieves all of this through journal entries, striking prose, haunting poetry, and chilling imagery of the history of violence that connects Ethel Ray’s early experience to today in Minnesota’s history.  I couldn’t find extensive research on Isabelle Bellecort, but a picture is worth a 1,000 words. Below is what the @mnhs.info said about Isabelle:
Isabelle Bellecourt was a citizen of the White Earth Nation and lived on the White Earth Reservation. Her husband, Eustache, served in the Civil War and her sons Charles (Marine Corps) and Paul (Cavalry) served in World War I. She was proud of her sons’ military service. In 1918, after they were deployed to France, Bellecourt published a letter in the White Earth newspaper, The Tomahawk: “I rest in peace for I know my sons are doing what is right and what their father would have them do.” Bellecourt celebrated her family’s contribution by serving on the Armistice Day celebration committee at White Earth in 1923. Bellecourt’s involvement with both the White Earth Nation and the US war effort mirrored the experiences of many Native women during World War I. At the time, Native American men who were US citizens could volunteer or be drafted into military service, and many served. However, citizenship status for Native Americans was often unclear, leading the draft boards to sometimes assign citizenship status — and thus draft eligibility — arbitrarily. At times, this barred Native Americans who volunteered to serve, while others were allowed to volunteer despite lack of US citizenship.  Harriet Scott, married to Dred Scott. You probably say ‘That name sounds familiar, but why do I know that name?’
I think it’s important to remember that Dred Scott v. Sanford is considered one of the most disgraceful decisions by the Supreme Court in US history. The Scotts were not considered citizens, but property by their race with this court ruling. The 13th amendment was passed, making this decision moot, but in a time when freedoms are being stripped away from US citizens it’s important to remember how and why we have these amendments. In Minnesota, you can go to Fort Snelling and see the small room where the Scotts lived as slaves. Lasts year I did the Juneteenth tour at Fort Snelling and highly recommend this tour.  This was the first image I saw reading about the school shooting in Minneapolis yesterday. This shooting is so devastating for so many reasons. Mass shootings are now unfortunately a normal event.
So this image of two women hugging really spoke to me of the need for community. It’s hard to feel hopeless that this trend of mass shootings will never change. We must come together as a community. We all do better when we all do better. We have to remind ourselves that the value of community is worth standing up for. We need change for our communities to thrive. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/amp/nation/shooting-reported-at-minnesota-school  Marsha P. Johnson has been on my Brart list for a long time. Marsha did some dumpster diving for her performance outfits, so I like to think that she would be delighted to have a Brart portrait.
I started her portrait on Juneteenth this year, and I thought this Time article, also written in Juneteenth, eloquently describes how relevant Marsha’s life is to us today. This article describes the necessity of remembering our activist icons were humans that fought for the progress that we don’t want to lose as a hateful regime tries to erase people. https://time.com/7295713/how-to-defy-anti-trans-wave/ There is also a documentary on Netflix, The Death and slide of Marsha P. Johnson, is a good starting point if you are unfamiliar with Marsha’s life, and the unsolved circumstances around her death.  Melissa Hortman was maliciously and unnecessarily murdered yesterday. While the manhunt for her assassin continues, we are reminded of how far our political system has descended. We will never forget this day.
Her legacy should be remembered in what she did for the citizens of Minnesota. Her obituary lists many causes she championed such as environmental, abortion rights, police reform, and gun control policies, and was the chief author for Minnesota’s solar energy standard. https://www.minnpost.com/state-government/2025/06/her-mirthful-eyes-her-sharp-humor-colleagues-remember-melissa-hortman-assassinated-at-age-55/ |
RSS Feed
