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“IN EVERY HUMAN BREAST, GOD HAS tHIS IS IMPLANTED A PRINCIPLE, WHICH WE CALL a sHaReD Teapot Made by Peter Bentzon, ca. 1817-29 ; Despite the legal limits placed on free blacks, LOVE OF FREEDOM early black entrepreneurs served as role aMeRICan models, philanthropists, and community IT IS IMPATIENT OF OPPRESSION, leaders. Peter Bentzon, born free in the Caribbean, was educated and trained as a silversmith in Philadelphia. Bentzon’s success AND PANTS FOR DELIVERANCE.” afforded him StORy. opportunities to –Phillis Wheatley, American poet, 1774 define his own freedom, even in a racist society. Nat Turner’s Bible, ca. 1830 Nat Turner, an enslaved minister, is thought to have been carrying this Bible when he was Five hundred years ago, a new form of captured after leading one of the most infamous slave rebellions. A man of remarkable intellect, slavery transformed Africa, Europe, and the Turner used his mobility as a Americas. For the first time, human beings preacher and knowledge of scripture to organize a were viewed as commodities to be bought, slave revolt in 1831. sold, and exploited to make enormous Gift of Maurice A. Person and Noah and Brooke Porter profits. This system changed the world. The United States was created in this context, forged by slavery as well as a radical new concept, freedom. This is a shared American story, a shared past, told through the lives of African Americans who helped form the nation. Child’s Shackles, before 1860 Shackles like these were used on captive Africans on slave ships bound for the New World. Point of Pines slave cabin, Men, women, and children were subjected Edisto Island, S.C., ca. 1853 to the horrors of the Middle Passage after This cabin was originally built to house being taken from their families and enslaved. enslaved African Americans on a plantation Over 12,500,000 souls experienced the in South Carolina. The four walls offered forced migration to the Americas. little privacy and no security. But the enslaved men, women, and children who lived here found ways to make such A Place for All People: quarters a home. After freedom, many Introducing the National Museum of African African Americans continued to live in the American History and Culture is organized by the Smithsonian cabins they had occupied during slavery Institution Traveling Gift of The Edisto Island Historic Preservation Society Exhibition Service, in collaboration with the museum. All images and objects from the Collection of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. Shards of Stained Glass from the Bombing of “We ClaIm ExaCtly tHE 16th Street Baptist Church, 1963 On September 15, 1963, a bomb same RigHts, pRIvIleGEs exploded at 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. The church, which had been the starting point for anD IMmunItIEs as arE many civil rights marches in the city, was targeted by white supremacists angered Enjoyed by WHIte men— by the court-ordered desegregation of local schools. The explosion killed four girls, ages 11 to 14. The deaths shocked WE aSk notHIng MoRe Skirt and Blouse Worn by the nation, and spurred activists to push Carlotta Walls on First Day at harder in the quest for civil rights. Little Rock Central High School, 1957 Gift from the Trumpauer-Mulholland Collection anD Will be Content In 1954 the Supreme Court ruled that segregated education was unconstitutional. But across the South, governments and wItH notHIng lEss.” school systems resisted the order to desegregate. In 1957, the Arkansas —Report of the Colored Convention, Montgomery, Alabama, 1867 NAACP selected nine students to integrate Little Rock Central High School. Carlotta Walls, age 14, was the youngest of the The years after the Civil War and “Little Rock Nine.” After state Reconstruction were hopeful and officials barred the students from entering on the first day of disheartening for African Americans. classes, President Eisenhower With the end of slavery, they had hoped authorized federal troops to escort them to school. to attain full citizenship. Instead they Gift of Carlotta Walls LaNier found themselves battling a new form of oppression—segregation. In the face of these attacks, African Americans created institutions and communities to help them survive and thrive. Through their struggle, they challenged the nation to live up to its promises of freedom and equality. The Tuskegee Airmen’s Stearman Kaydet As the nation prepared to enter World War II, African Americans serving in the segregated armed forces had to convince the military to allow them to become pilots. Oak Church Pew #58 The first group of candidates, known as the Tuskegee Airmen, trained at Moton from Quinn Chapel AME Church Field in Tuskegee, Alabama. Many of them Quinn Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church flew this training aircraft to pass the tests is the oldest black congregation in Chicago. Founded in A Place for All People: 1844, the church has occupied its present building Introducing the National administered by the War Department. Museum of African since 1891. It was an important force behind the creation American History and Culture is organized of several local institutions, including Provident Hospital by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling and Training School Association, established to train Exhibition Service, in collaboration with black nurses and serve black and white patients. the museum. Gift of Quinn Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church, Chicago, Illinois All images and objects from the Collection of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. “I am “ACROSS THIS COUNTRY, YOUNG BLACK MEN AND WOMEN anD aLWays HAVE BEEN INFECTED WITH WIlL bE A FEVER OF AFFIRMATION. THEY ARE SAYING, a CataLySt ‘WE ARE BLACK AND BEAUTIFUL.’ ” —Hoyt Fuller, American author, editor, educator, and critic, 1968 for CHanGE.” Searching Door-to-Door for —Shirley Chisholm, American politician, educator, and author Katrina Survivors, 2005 In 2005 Hurricane Katrina and subsequent flooding devastated New While the modern Civil Rights Movement Orleans and surrounding areas. Many of achieved many victories, it did not end the storm’s victims were black and poor, and their suffering was compounded by the struggle for freedom. Black Americans slow and inadequate relief efforts. With have continued to wrestle with racial 80 percent of the city flooded after the storm, rescue crews went door-to-door Shirley Chisholm Presidential discrimination, cultural exclusion, and Campaign Poster, 1972 looking for survivors among the 60,000 African Americans fought for economic inequality. Just as the Civil Rights stranded residents. They marked each power over their lives, and political searched building with the date, identity office—local, state, or national— and Black Power Movements pursued goals of the search crew, areas of the building moved black people toward that of equity and justice in the 20th century, inspected, and number of casualties— goal. Shirley Chisholm was the in this case, none. Over a thousand first African American woman Americans must decide how to advance residents were not as fortunate. elected to Congress and the first the same goals in the 21st. to campaign for the presidency. Under the slogan “Unbought and Unbossed,” she ran for the Democratic Party nomination in 1972, but lost. Beset by both Radio Raheem’s Boombox, 1989 racist and sexist opposition, this In the 1980s, music from boomboxes filled daughter of immigrants from city streets with the era’s latest sounds: Barbados and Guyana advocated Hip-Hop, a style of music that channeled for poor inner-city residents, the frustrations, hopes, and day-to-day saying, “I am and always will experiences of black youth in America. In be a catalyst for change.” Spike Lee’s 1989 movie Do the Right Thing, Gifted with pride from Ellen Brooks the character Radio Raheem proudly blasted Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power” from this boombox as he walked through his Brooklyn A Place for All People: neighborhood. Raheem is later killed by a Introducing the National Museum of African police officer using excessive force—a scene American History and Culture is organized that would echo in events that sparked the by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Black Lives Matter Movement. Exhibition Service, in collaboration with the museum. All images and objects from the Collection of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. “WHAT’S REMARKABLE IS NOT Desk from the Hope School, 1925-54 Education has always been a path to HOW MANY FAILED IN THE FACE freedom. The Rosenwald Fund, created by educator Booker T. Washington and philanthropist Julius Rosenwald, OF DISCRIMINATION, BUT RATHER helped open up that path for African American children in the rural, HOW MANY MEN AND WOMEN segregated South. Between 1917 and 1932 the Rosenwald Fund supported the construction of 5,300 schools in OVERCAME THE ODDS; HOW MANY 15 states, including the Hope School in Pomaria, South Carolina. WERE ABLE TO MAKE A WAY OUT Gift of the Hope School Community Center, Pomaria, SC MAKE A WAy OF NO WAY FOR THOSE LIKE ME WHO WOULD COME AFTER THEM.” — President Barack Obama, 2008 How do you make a way out of no way? For generations, African Americans worked collectively to live with dignity in the midst of racial oppression. Through education, religious institutions, businesses, the press, and voluntary associations, black men and women created ways to serve and strengthen their communities. They established networks of mutual support, cultivated leadership, and improved social and economic opportunities. They also developed a tradition of activism that paved the way for broader social change. Workers’ Time Clock from the National Baptist Publishing Board, ca. 1912 Through enterprise, African Americans “Lifting as We Climb” sought greater control over their social, Banner, ca. 1924 economic, and educational lives. In African American women mobilized 1896, Richard Henry Boyd founded the and organized to make ways out of National Baptist Publishing Board in no way.