Through the African American Lens
A group of black Civil War veterans had an idea in 1915 and now just over 100 years later, Americans are witnessing it come to life as “A place that transcends the boundaries of race and culture that divide us, and becomes a lens into a story that unites us all.”
SUPPLIED PHOTO
National Museum of African American History and Culture, Washington, D.C.
We are talking about the National Museum of African American History and Culture that opened in Washington, D.C., in September.
Sherry Cannon, community activist, said, the museum is critically important because “ . . . black history isn’t taught in schools any more and even in colleges it’s an elective subject. All of the important contributions that people of color have made are not known by most people and specifically people of color. A lot of the challenges that we have are because we don’t know our history, and it’s a history that some people take as an embarrassment of 250 years of slavery and Jim Crow. Black people don’t understand the fortitude and strength that our fore-parents had to get through the time of slavery. All of the wonderful contributions that African Americans made are going to be in that museum.”
John W. Franklin, senior manager of the museum, will give two lectures in Peoria on Oct. 13. He will give an insiders’ view of the development of the museum and the rich history and culture told through photographs from 1860s to modern day, paintings, drawings, and a wealth of historic artifacts that reveal both the pride and pain of our shared past. Items range from the dress Rosa Parks was sewing at home the day she refused to give up her seat on the bus to a bucket Dr. Martin Luther King Jr used to soak his feet after the five-day Selma to Montgomery march to a pillowcase a mother gave her 9-year-old daughter when she was sold as a slave.
Franklin’s lectures are sponsored by the Fine Arts Society, Peoria’s Concerned African American Retirees organization and African American Hall of Fame Museum.
Oct. 13 Lecture “Building the National Museum of African American History and Culture: An Insider’s View from Idea to Reality.”
10 a.m. to 11 a.m., Peoria Riverfront Museum. Tickets at the door: adults $12; students $5. Presented by Fine Arts Society. For complete list of this season’s program, visit FineArtsSociety.net.
6:30 p.m. Peoria Riverfront Museum. For ticket information contact: caar.organization@gmail.com or call 309-360-0990. Adults $10; students $5. Presented by Concerned African American Retirees and the African American Hall of Fame Museum.
Grand Dame Queenie – © Amy Sherald 2012 oil on canvas
Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Amy Sherald gained national recognition when she received first place in a portrait competition sponsored by the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.