A group of men on a bridge over water, confront an angry dog at left. The scene is against a background of multi-colored abstracted forms, representing sky and water. Published by Alex Rosenberg, New York, NY

Confrontation at the Bridge

Lawrence, Jacob

1975

Artwork Information

  • Title:

    Confrontation at the Bridge

  • Artist:

    Lawrence, Jacob

  • Artist Bio:

    American, 1917–2000

  • Date:

    1975

  • Medium:

    Serigraph

  • Dimensions:

    19 7/16 x 25 15/16 inches

  • Credit Line:

    Wichita Art Museum, Museum purchase, Burneta Adair Endowment Fund

  • Object Number:

    1991.9

  • Display:

    Not Currently on Display

About the Artwork

This print was a result of a commission for America’s celebration of its Bicentennial. Transworld Art in New York City asked Lawrence to do a print on some aspect of American history since the Revolution. He focused upon the Civil Rights movement in his painting, and subsequent print, titled Confrontation at the Bridge. It refers to “Bloody Sunday,” an incident which occurred in the 1965 voter registration campaign in Alabama organized by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. On March 7, 1965, King’s grass-roots lieutenant Hosea Williams and the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee’s John Lewis attempted to lead a non-violent protest march from Selma, Alabama, to the capital in Montgomery. At the Edmund Pettus Bridge outside Selma, the marchers confronted state troopers called out by the governor of Alabama, George Wallace. The troopers answered with a violent assault upon the marchers. Members of the civil rights movement call that day “Bloody Sunday.”