Minnesota History Magazine Summer 2020 (67:2)

Articles

The Importance of History in Times of Crisis
Kent Whitworth

During this time of challenge, the Minnesota Historical Society is resolved to hold Minnesota’s history in trust for all its citizens. We are committed to using the power of history to help Minnesota become a more reflective, inclusive, and empathetic community. Members are crucial partners in championing the transformational power of history: how it opens us to new ideas, offers new perspectives, and brings us closer to the future we long to create.

Something in the Water: Brainerd's Water Fluoridation Battle
Paul Nelson

Forty years ago, the city of Brainerd gave up—under legal compulsion—its decade-long fight to prevent fluoridation of its water supply. While hundreds of other towns and cities around the country also fought fluoride, using the same arguments and expressing the same fears, Brainerd was the only town in Minnesota that put up determined citizen resistance, using multiple lawsuits and a unique legal argument, nullification.

"In That Very Northern City": Recovering a Forgotten Struggle for Racial Integration in Duluth
Chad Montrie

Duluth’s racial order was left largely intact for decades following the lynchings of 1920. The 1960s brought a measure of progress, thanks to the collaboration of an outspoken couple from Chicago, Matthew and Helen Carter; the new leader of the local NAACP chapter, William Maupins; and Thomas L. Smith, a white Unitarian Universalist minister. Together they challenged Duluth’s prevailing residential segregation, ultimately allowing the Carter family to overcome neighborhood opposition and build a new home in an all-white neighbor-hood along the Lake Superior lakefront.

Departments

Editor’s Notes/Masthead
The view from my home office window.
Laura Weber

Curator’s Choice
Minnesota Vikings cheerleader costume
Kathryn Hujda and Sondra Reierson

EyeWitness
Independent football and the 1918 flu epidemic
John Rosengren

LandMarks
Paradise Theater, Minneapolis
Anne Drolet

Book Excerpt
A Woman's War, Too: Women at Work During World War II by Virginia M. Wright-Peterson

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