Enrichment Review: National Museum of African American History and Culture
The tour begins with slavery in Africa, and then in the Americas. The most attention-grabbing artifact of is an 1800s-slave cabin from a plantation in South Carolina; but the most disheartening one is a lockable iron neck-ring, so small that clearly it only fit on a small child. Words speak loudly, too. A handwritten receipt confirms the sale of a teenage girl and “her future issue.” A full-scale modern sculpture of Thomas Jefferson stands before a wall listing some of the slaves he owned, most identified by one name.
The section then alternates its presentation of slavery with more upbeat-sounding subjects, like the role played by black patriots in the American Revolution. This arrangement, …show more content…
But what stares you right in the face is a white satin Ku Klux Klan hood, sitting in a case with photographs of lynchings on display nearby.
It’s amazing how the museum incorporates everything together. You can’t just pick and choose a comfortable version of history. At the same time, you’re given some warnings. The museum frames certain things — lynching photographs, for example — within red lines, alerting viewers to their emotionally loaded content. The potentially most upsetting object in the museum was the coffin that once held Emmett Till, which was isolated in a chapel-like room of its own. Another space, free of any objects, was set aside as a sort of recovery station, and the museum had a grief counselor on call.
On the third and uppermost history level, called “1968 to Today,” the atmosphere changes, and feels less gloomy. Because we are now closer to present day time, and personalities and events are becoming familiar. Or because the installation is suddenly buzzy with multimedia information. History starts moving at a breathless but measurable clip, hero by hero and movement by
The tour begins with slavery in Africa, and then in the Americas. The most attention-grabbing artifact of is an 1800s-slave cabin from a plantation in South Carolina; but the most disheartening one is a lockable iron neck-ring, so small that clearly it only fit on a small child. Words speak loudly, too. A handwritten receipt confirms the sale of a teenage girl and “her future issue.” A full-scale modern sculpture of Thomas Jefferson stands before a wall listing some of the slaves he owned, most identified by one name.
The section then alternates its presentation of slavery with more upbeat-sounding subjects, like the role played by black patriots in the American Revolution. This arrangement, …show more content…
But what stares you right in the face is a white satin Ku Klux Klan hood, sitting in a case with photographs of lynchings on display nearby.
It’s amazing how the museum incorporates everything together. You can’t just pick and choose a comfortable version of history. At the same time, you’re given some warnings. The museum frames certain things — lynching photographs, for example — within red lines, alerting viewers to their emotionally loaded content. The potentially most upsetting object in the museum was the coffin that once held Emmett Till, which was isolated in a chapel-like room of its own. Another space, free of any objects, was set aside as a sort of recovery station, and the museum had a grief counselor on call.
On the third and uppermost history level, called “1968 to Today,” the atmosphere changes, and feels less gloomy. Because we are now closer to present day time, and personalities and events are becoming familiar. Or because the installation is suddenly buzzy with multimedia information. History starts moving at a breathless but measurable clip, hero by hero and movement by