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8. Mahopac, New York Endings “Last night . . . was free from gunshots,” Regina wrote in her own hand as an addendum to her typewritten letter to her friends Mr. and Mrs. J. Newton Hill, representing the African-American Institute in Lagos, Nigeria. She meant to reassure them after typing the following message: Events in New York and in Harlem in particular are rather disturbing at present —and apparently growing steadily worse. Rapport between City officials and the man in the streets in Harlem seems to have worsened rapidly since the Republican Convention, as if a foreboding was generated during the Convention days which has cast a shadow even over those who remain aloof and apart. A few incidents in the area of my Library have caused more than a few to pause and think or remain indoors in the evening. . . . [T]he street incidents of the last night were not as serious as heretofore—however, there was no sleep after 3 A.M., when the barking of angry dogs, of police cars and fire engines could be clearly heard from 145th and Lenox to where we live on the roof of 409 Edgecombe. Regina was referring to the July 1964 Harlem–Bedford Stuyvesant uprising or riot, which was ignited by the shooting death of a fifteen-year-old African American high-school student, James Powell, by an off-duty white police officer , Lieutenant Thomas Gilligan, who was later cleared of any wrong doing. The unrest went on for several days, resulting in the loss of another life and great property damage. Powell was attending summer school along with a number of African American and Puerto Rican students in a predominantly white section of the Upper East Side of New York City. A superintendent of one of the apartment buildings shooed the students away from a stoop with Mahopac, New York 111 a water hose. The altercation between the superintendent and the students ended with Lt. Gilligan shooting Powell in the back several times.1 In the same letter to the Hills, Regina remarked, “We look forward to each weekend’s retreat to Lake Mahopac, not as a hiding place, but one giving release from our own frustration.” Lake Mahopac provided a refuge from the noise and violence of the city. The Andrewses, who initially purchased this home in the early 1940s as a weekend’s retreat, eventually made this property their retirement home. Retirement did not prevent Regina from continuing her participation in civic activities both in Mahopac and in New York City. In fact, Regina was involved with the controversial Harlem on My Mind exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.2 Perhaps Regina and Bill caught a train from Mahopac to New York City in January 1969 to attend the opening of the exhibit. Maybe they stayed with friends or rented a hotel room and went out for dinner before or after the opening. Whatever the circumstances, attending the exhibition was no doubt uncomfortable due to the protestors outside of the museum. Regina was invited to become a member of a three-person research advisory panel to consult on the exhibition. The panel included noted historian John Henrik Clarke and Jean Blackwell Hutson, a curator at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.3 Susan Cahan said, “Harlem on My Mind became one of the greatest fiascoes in the history of American museums . Harlem-based scholars and community leaders felt exploited and misrepresented by the museum. . . . The Harlem Cultural Council withdrew its endorsement of the show.” Cahan wrote, “Throughout the exhibition planning process, Schoener, his staff, and his advisors were forced to grapple with serious issues of representation, authenticity, and authority.”4 The advisors, including Regina, were quite sympathetic to the artists and urged the curator , Allon Schoener, to consider the criticism that the exhibition was creating . Later, Schoener admitted that he just wanted the research committee to rubber-stamp his suggestions because he “had little intention of listening to the advice of the research committee members. He now openly admits that he did not want any interference with his vision, even though the idea of creating the advisory board had been his own.”5 Harlem artists thought that they would finally be able to have their work displayed in one of the greatest museums in the country. However, Schoener decided to create a historical timeline of photographs instead because his “vision was that the exhibition would only present documentary photoreproduction and texts, not...

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