I write this letter today because I am both exhausted and frustrated. I can only imagine what Dr. King was feeling when he wrote his Letter from a Birmingham Jail. I'm angry at a nation that I love but doesn’t seem to love me back. Recently, we got a first-hand look at the two justice systems that exist in our America – one for Blacks and one for Whites.
Kenosha, Wisconsin, a city with a Black population of 11.46%, was the site of a recent police shooting of a Black man....
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Ain’t gonna hurt nobody to get on down!
- Brick
Summer’s here and the time is right for dancing in the street
- Martha and The Vandellas
This is how we do it
It’s Friday night and I feel alright
The party’s here on the West side
– Montell Jordan
Summer, summer, summertime
Time to sit back and unwind
- DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince
...
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Wednesday, June 17, 2020
“Freedom has never been free.”
– Medgar Evers
“We who believe in freedom cannot rest”
– Ella Baker
“I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when
her shackles are very different from my own.
And I am not free as long as one person of Color remains chained.
Nor is anyone of you.”
-Audre Lorde
This week’s theme is Freedom & Liberation. Friday is Juneteenth, the holiday commemorating the emancipation...
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Posted by
Connie Dyson
at
Wednesday, June 17, 2020
As he approached the podium, Bayard Rustin was determined and elated. He expected about 100,000 marchers to converge at the Washington Monument on August 28, 1963. To his delight, approximately 250,000 people cheered as he listed the demands of the march. The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom began after eight weeks of recruiting marchers, coordinating buses and marshals, scheduling speakers, and managing logistics. Despite Rustin’s critical role as the march’s chief...
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“Don’t let anybody tell you what to do, be who you want to be.”
– Marsha P. Johnson
“We are people, of the mighty
Mighty people of the sun.”
– Earth Wind & Fire
This week’s theme is Pride & Identity. Pride & Identity is more than the celebration of self-acceptance. The songs on this week’s list show the challenges of being oneself in a world that is reluctant to accept our self-identity. This is...
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The National Civil Rights Museum Celebrates Black Music Month
Music has been intrinsically linked with the Civil Rights Movement and African American history. Our celebration of Black Music Month began as a way to connect with you during this pandemic. However, as the current moment has unfolded, it has become a way for us to use music to educate, heal, reflect, and inspire.
Each week, we will release a themed playlist curated by the NCRM staff. Share with us your recommendations using...
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Thursday, May 28, 2020
By Terri Lee Freeman, Museum President
I have always looked at the glass as half full as opposed to empty. But even so, I consider myself more of a pragmatist than an optimist. As an African American woman, I’ve experienced how ugly the world can be. I’ve experienced both blatant and more insidious racism. I’ve been called a nigger. I’ve been assumed to be the assistant to my white CFO when, in fact, I was the CEO. I’ve watched...
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at Thursday, May 28, 2020
From Black Enterprise , May 24, 2020
by Terri Lee Freeman
Just as 9/11 defined the new millennium, the novel coronavirus will certainly be the story of the decade.
The global pandemic has caused a devastating public health crisis, initiated a global economic disaster, and in the United States, pulled back the curtain on the deep-rooted racial inequities that persist. Just as COVID-19 is a deadly virus, so is the disease of racism, particularly systemic racism....
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Wednesday, May 20, 2020
Over the summer of 1961, 329 people from across the country, both black and white, boarded buses and headed south. The Freedom Rides set out to test federal law banning segregation in bus and train terminals across the South.
After facing violence in Alabama, Jackson, Mississippi became the end of the line. From May to September, activists flooded into town. They came by bus and by airplane. Each in turn was arrested and photographed. The notorious Mississippi State Penitentiary, known...
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at Wednesday, May 20, 2020
Wednesday, May 20, 2020
White columns guide you when entering the Brown vs Board of Education exhibition. On the right are pews and a short video recapping the world-changing U.S. Supreme Court decision on May 17, 1954, 66 years ago this week.
For 89 years, schools across the South were racially segregated and drastically different. Despite a court order stating “separate but equal” facilities were constitutional, inequity ran rampant in southern schools. The NAACP successfully argued that...
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at Wednesday, May 20, 2020