This year, for the first time in more than a decade, there will be a major fireworks display to commemorate Independence Day at the Mount Rushmore National Memorial. The sculpture features the faces of four American presidents — Washington, Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Lincoln — carved into a granite slope over the Black Hills of South Dakota. In the eight decades since the carving was completed, it has never been without controversy. Native Americans have long criticized the sculpture, in part because it was built on what had been Indigenous land. And more recently, amid a nationwide movement against racism that has toppled statues commemorating Confederate generals and other historical figures, some activists have called for Mount Rushmore to close.

Source: New York Times July 01, 2020 15:45 UTC