From 1952 onward, Oxford experienced major changes in transportation, education, public life, and growth. The opening of the William P. Lane, Jr. Memorial Bridge in 1952 replaced ferries and greatly improved connections to the Eastern Shore, and a second bridge span opened in 1973 to increase traffic flow again. After the Supreme Court's 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, the first Black students entered Oxford Elementary School in 1956, and Talbot County schools were fully integrated in 1966. Railroad freight service to Oxford ended in 1956, while in 1960 the National Marine Fisheries Service opened the Oxford Laboratory to fight MSX, a parasitic disease that had devastated the Bay's oysters. Oxford's institutions and boundaries also evolved as the Oxford Museum was established in 1964, the Oxford School closed in 1971, the Oxford Historic District was established in 1986 and later listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004, and several areas were rezoned or annexed between 1985 and 1999. Population figures recorded 750 residents in 1970, 771 in 2000, and 651 in 2010. In 1980 the steel-hulled ferry Talbot entered service, in 2000 a new Town Hall was built on Market Street and the Oxford Museum acquired Bringman's Store as its home, in 2011 a living shoreline was built along Town Park, in 2016 the Oxford Conservation Park opened on Oxford Road, and in 2020 the COVID-19 pandemic and the rise of remote work brought many new families from urban areas to buy homes in Oxford. Alongside these local developments, the period also included national and international events such as John F. Kennedy's election in 1960, the Cuban missile crisis in 1962, Kennedy's assassination and riots in nearby Cambridge in 1963, the Civil Rights Act in 1964, Thurgood Marshall's appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1967, Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination and the Vietnam War's growing scale in 1968, the Moon landing, the 1983 Chesapeake Bay Agreement, and the War on Terrorism after the 9/11 attacks.