Controversial Montgomery MAGA billboard sparks backlash, confusion, conversation

USA Today

06-02-2025

AI-assisted summary
The billboard was intended as promotion for a museum exhibit of Bloody Sunday photographer Spider Martin's work but was removed at the request of the city's mayor.
The incident has further exposed an ongoing conflict between the museum's boards and the mayor's office over control of the museum.
While some praised the billboard's removal, others criticized it as censorship, sparking debate about the intersection of art, politics, and history.
On March 7, 1965, a young photographer walked into a massive civil rights dispute in Selma, and captured scenes that still resonate with today's society.
The day became known as "Bloody Sunday," and 25-year-old James "Spider" Martin was in the thick of it. "Two Minute Warning," one of Martin's iconic black-and-white images from the day, shows white Alabama troopers marching in to beat peaceful Black protesters — including future U.S. Rep. John Lewis — who just wanted to walk for the right to vote. For 60 years, this iconic photo has stood as a harsh reminder of the high price that can be required for meaningful change.
In 2025, that photo returned to Montgomery in billboard form, overlayed with four words that have been a focal point in Republican politics for decades — "Make America Great Again." While President Donald Trump owns the saying these days, it originated with President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s.
Besides the "MAGA" words and photo, it only contained the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts name, and the name of the artist-led group For Freedoms that created it.
The billboard appears to have been a promotion for an exhibition of Martin's photos called "Selma Is Now" from Feb. 28-June 1, though these details weren't included on the sign. The exhibit begins just ahead of the 60th anniversary of Bloody Sunday and the Bridge Crossing Jubilee on March 6-9 in Selma.
The billboard has since been removed by Mayor Steven L. Reed and the museum's leadership, but not before catching the attention and imagination of both supporters and detractors who saw it while driving past.
"I think it was a wonderful opportunity for people to have a conversation, not just about what it represented, but also the photographer behind it, Spider Martin. He's kind of left out of the conversations sometimes," said Michelle Browder, founder and director of I AM MORE THAN... Youth Empowerment Initiative in Montgomery, who also owns and operates More Than Tours. She believes the billboard's removal was a "knee jerk reaction."
Kalonji Gilchrist is executive director of 21 Dreams Arts and Culture, a nonprofit membership organization committed to the advancement of creative and cultural arts in Montgomery. Though he thinks the billboard needed more context, Gilchrist said he didn't feel it was a jab at history, or at African Americans. As an artist, he could appreciate the juxtaposition of the words and photo, and thought it was asking a question.
To help get an answer, Gilchrist opened a social media discussion about the billboard, and people shared ideas on how the message could have resonated better with Montgomery. Among the responses:
Ashley DuBose Ledbetter: "Timing and context mean everything. While it created discussion, it was not positive from the majority of John Q Public on either side of the coin."
Lyra Lyricat: "Maybe it needed to say, 'Make America Great Again by not allowing history to repeat itself.''
Shauna Stonebraker Runk: "I feel it was in poor taste to place that billboard in Montgomery of all places."
Jacqueline Trimble: "Art provokes. I am fascinated by the fact that everybody on both sides of the political divide are angry. Art is political, even when it claims not to be."
Boards say museum and mayor's office are in conflict
A sticking point with MMFA is that the billboard apparently wasn't erected through proper channels at the museum.
"The museum leadership and board, this happened without their knowledge and approval," said Austin Barranco, a MMFA board of trustees member, during an on-air call with Talk 93.1 "News and Views" with Joey Clark.
"We've been trying to push such a positive agenda at the museum," Barranco said.
However, the billboard was somehow funded by the museum, according to Mayor Reed.
"As soon as I was made aware of the billboard featuring a politicized image of Bloody Sunday, I immediately inquired whether it had been purchased by the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts," Reed released in a statement on Jan. 30. "Upon learning that it was, I requested that the image be removed from all billboards without delay."
So how did this billboard slip through the cracks, if no one in power approved its use? At least part of the answer may be because of an ongoing two-year conflict between the MMFA Association boards and Mayor Reed's office.
The Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts operates under two boards, one appointed by the City Council, and one that's a private MMFA Association Board. On Tuesday, Feb. 4, those boards sent out a joint release to address the conflict.
The boards — which have operated in a public/private partnership with the city for almost 100 years — say that In February 2023, Montgomery officials placed MMFA Director Angie Dodson on administrative leave, without consulting the boards.
"Since then, the mayor's office has effectively exerted control over the operation of museum without meaningful board consultation," the release states. "Both boards have expressed their opposition to the unilateral assumption of control by the mayor's office, but in an effort to achieve a harmonious resolution, they have refrained from publicly acknowledging this conflict while discussions have continued."
The release states that the billboard is one of a "number of other pressing issues" the museum is facing because of the conflict, which has left the boards without the ability to properly exercise power to govern.
"Members, visitors, supporters and taxpayers deserve to know what is happening," the release states.
Reed wrote that the city is reviewing the process to purchase advertising so that "missteps are not repeated" for future advertisements.
Matters of art, thought, and censorship claims
Was this billboard a "politicized" image, or an artistic choice worth examining? Some say it was both. In the world of art, putting uncommon things together creates an assemblage. In this case, it weaved issues of the past and present. It created discussions that continue, even without the billboard.
"I thought it was brilliant. Shout out to MMFA," said Browder, who added that people shouldn't be so "fragile" in today's environment. "(The museum) should have followed up, and certain people should have been made aware of what was happening."
Reed's decision to remove the billboard drew praise from Southern Poverty Law Center.
'We can never afford to empower or embolden bad actors to cause harm and trample the rights and freedoms of marginalized groups,' said Tafeni English-Relf, director of Southern Poverty Law Center's Alabama State Office.
Its removal also drew criticism from groups like the National Coalition Against Censorship.
"Though you may not agree with the politics or the vision of the artists behind the billboard, your position overseeing the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts does not give you the right to enforce your personal political perspective on the museum's programming," wrote Elizabeth Larison, director of the Arts & Culture Advocacy Program for NCAC, in a letter to Mayor Reed.
Reed wrote that the legacy of Bloody Sunday represents a pivotal moment in the nation's fight for equality and justice.
"We must be extremely mindful of how we use such images of our shared history, especially when they risked being perceived as politically charged," Reed wrote. "Our history deserves to be treated with the utmost respect and care ensuring it unifies rather than divides us as a community."
As to exactlyhow and why someone at MMFA selected this billboard from For Freedoms to use, the museum is directing those questions to City Hall. The Advertiser has reached out to the city for more details.
MAGA words raise questions about America
The words "Make America Great Again" beg a question that to Browder reaches back to a civil rights icon, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.: Which America?
"Dr. King talked about that. There's two Americas," said Browder, referring to King's 1967 speech "The Other America."
That wasn't the only question it raised.
"When has it been great?" asked Gilchrist. "This is the dark history that has followed America through its time."
Browder agreed, saying, "This is a country that been built on slavery, and the legacy of slavery. We're seeing it now. But what has been great are the people who have fought for freedoms. That is what makes America great."
Those thoughts seem in line with what the artist-led group For Freedoms — cofounded by Hank Willis Thomas and Eric Gottesman — had in mind when they made the billboard. The For Freedoms billboard with "MAGA" words isn't new. A version of it appeared in Pearl, Mississippi, in 2016, when Trump was facing Hillary Clinton to win his first term in office. The billboard raised similar conversations then.
"Love does not start with a swift kick in the ass, or at the end of a billy club, which is what our sign is trying to say," For Freedoms wrote on social media in 2016.
"As a Black person, it's hard for me to love America like that, because there's challenges with the violence and everything else that has been evoked on people of color," Gilchrist said.
Referring to President Trump's pardons for the Jan. 6 rioters and Trump's most recent orders to eliminate all Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs in the federal government, Browder had this do say: "Right now, we're not doing so great."
The enduring work of Spider Martin
So when was America "great"? It could be argued that in instances of suffering, in times of oppression, in acts of resistance, people like those 1965 protesters — and all those came before and after — were and are great. Maybe that's at least one point of the billboard, and why Martin's photo has stood the test of time.
Even after Martin was struck on the back of his head by an officer, the 5-foot-2-inch photojournalist continued to capture the deadly scenes. He stayed with the protesters for days, through the eventually-successful march and the crowd's arrival in Mongomery. His photos would be passed on to the rest of the state, the nation and the world. Martin's efforts didn't go unnoticed.
"Spider, we could have marched, we could have protested forever, but if it weren't for guys like you, it would have been for nothing," the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. told Martin, according to a 2015 Advertiser article by the late Alvin Benn. "The whole world saw your pictures. That's why the Voting Rights Act passed."
Montgomery Advertiser reporter Shannon Heupel can be contacted at [e-mail].