I’ve been to a lot of historic museums in my 23 years, and nothing has yet to compare to the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
The whole building is overwhelming. I knew the minute I saw it from Constitution Avenue, a street I remember for good times and laughs, a block my friends and I strolled during all of my college years. But this street now served a new purpose.
The museum details the beginning of slavery and the emerging global economy. “People saw Africans as things to be bought, sold, and exploited to make enormous profits,” the exhibit states. “The United States was created in this context.”
I saw the size differences between baby and adult chains. I read about the laws that were constantly changed to define who could be enslaved and what slaves could and could not do. In 1680, no black person (whether slave or free) could carry weapons, travel without a pass, or lift a hand against a white person.
My heart ached at the exhibit centered around the slave market. I’ve seen all of the “Roots” miniseries, so I’m fairly familiar with the auctions and humiliation that slaves faced. But seeing the actual documents, it was hard to believe this was a reality for millions of blacks.
I wrote them down, these human lives sold as property and dehumanized based on perceptions of race and the profit motive: “One negro boy, $5.00, eight years old,” “33, boy with two toes cut off with axe $1,250,” “Negro woman and two children, $1,200,” “a mulatto man with some disease in his neck $775.”
Upstairs, the exhibits depicted the present day, from the arrest of black Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. to the dress Michelle Obama wore in the 2008 inauguration of President Obama.
The trip to Washington, D.C. is definitely worth the visit for the purpose of knowing the history of slavery. I thought reading about it for years was enough, but it is not. Physically viewing the artifacts leaves you with a realistic connection to the past. George Santayana said it best: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Through education about our history, society can learn the horrific details, but also embrace a more positive future.
From the smiles to the tears I witnessed fall from visitors at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, I am sure after a visit you will feel a sense of hope and inspiration that wouldn’t be the same as reading a history book.
