What messages are Congress members sending with 1870 and crayon pins?

As lawmakers attend President Biden’s State of the Union on Tuesday night, many are making statements with an assortment of pins on their lapels.

Members of the Congressional Black Caucus and several other Democrats could be seen wearing large black pins that said “1870” on them, marking the year that police murdered Henry Truman, an unarmed Black man, according to cards accompanying the pins.

The cards read, “153 years later, nothing has changed,” referring to the recent murder of Tyre Nichols, another unarmed Black man, by police in Memphis, Tenn.

“We are tired of mourning and demand change,” the cards added.

Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) also organized several of her colleagues to wear pins resembling crayons to Tuesday’s speech, signaling support for affordable child care, according to a press release from the congresswoman’s office.

She wants the accessories, which she is calling “Crayons for Kids,” to “spark a conversation about how you can’t talk about the economy without talking about child care.”

Also seen wearing the pins in Twitter posts were Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) and Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-Ore.).

Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) wore an abortion pin from Planned Parenthood on his lapel, noting in a Twitter post that “abortion is essential healthcare and we need to codify this right.”

Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) sported a March For Our Lives pin to represent the fight against gun violence, and he and Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) also wore “warming stripes” pins to highlight the “urgent need” for action on the climate crisis.

“Climate change is an existential threat to the present and future of our planet and we cannot wait to act,” Goldman said in a tweet.