When Bob Archibald announced his resignation from the Missouri History Museum last week, The American was preparing this report on the museum’s coverage of race. We let the reporting stand as a statement on Archibald’s leadership of the museum, which ends December 31.
On any given Twilight Tuesday, it has been impossible not to see the African-American community’s roaring support for the Missouri History Museum. Black families spread out their picnics throughout the lawn, relax and listen to the music on a summer night.
The black community, however, also steps indoors throughout the year and participates in the museum’s numerous exhibits, especially those targeted to the African-American community.
On February 23 through June 30, the museum will host a traveling exhibit, Question Bridge: Black Males. The “transmedia” art project facilitates a dialogue between black men from diverse backgrounds and creates a platform for them to represent and redefine black male identity in America.
“Our president, Robert Archibald, is interested in facilitating community conversations,” said MK Stallings, assistant director for community education and events. “He has written about museums becoming the new town squares. So it’s only right that the issue of the day be expressed in the new town square. These exhibits we have, and have had, start the conversation.”
More than any public St. Louis institution, the history museum has kept a keen focus on not only African-American history but also pushing forward the conversation about what it means – and what it’s like – to be black. Archibald has led that charge.
In 2011, the museum brought in America I Am, an exhibition celebrating 400 years of African-American contributions to the nation. In a June 30, 2011 article, Archibald told The American that the exhibit documented ways that African Americans have persisted and achieved and made huge contributions, despite all the obstacles placed in their way.
“The message of the exhibit is these are really strong people who learned to be strong and had to be strong and who represent in many ways the best of what humans are,” Archibald said.
“For people of African descent, we are looking at something really empowering that underscores all the things we know to be true. For people who are not of African descent, this is an opportunity to stand in the shoes of African Americans and view the world from their extraordinary perspective.”
Breaking down barriers
Under Archibald, the museum has maintained its commitment to bringing cutting-edge and interactive exhibits that explore race.
In 2010, the museum hosted the RACE: Are We So Different, the first national exhibition to tell the stories of race from the biological, cultural and historical points of view. It also offered a platform for non-judgmental discussions on race.
The exhibit opened two days before the MLK holiday, and plenty of families opted to spend the day named in his honor to work towards understanding each other and building King’s “beloved community.”
The traveling multi-media exhibit used video, audio, photos, books and interactive activities to break down the racial walls that separate us from each other.
St. Louis American reporter Kenya Vaughn wrote:
Upon entry, there are voices – of blacks, whites and others – bouncing around the room in every direction from television screens and speakers. It sounds as if the conversation has already begun.
“’Cause it’s Martin Luther King’s birthday,” seven-year-old Chasen Richardson said with authority as she offered her reason for coming to the exhibit.
“I learned about white and black people and how they had to be separated,” she continued. “Dr. Martin Luther King was trying to make them come together, but they didn’t allow them to do that.”
Her adult brother Randall brought her to the exhibit.
“A lot of times visuals help bring things together. You learn a lot of things yourself, but this gives you a chance to see things visually,” Randall said.
“It’s not really focused on one race – it’s about race in general and how certain differences came about and putting everybody in the same pot and seeing what we have done as human beings to manipulate certain things.”
The exhibit also featured a seven-minute 2005 documentary called A Girl Like Me that explored black girls’ racial preference of dolls. Still in 2005, when the director asked 21 children their preference between a white and black doll, 15 children preferred the white doll.
“The doll test – that’s not unique to New York. That’s in St. Louis too,” said Jacquelyn Lewis-Harris, director of The Centers for Human Origin and Cultural Diversity housed at the University of Missouri–St. Louis.
“People in their 20s and 30s say they don’t see race,” Lewis-Harris said. “People think it’s all over. It’s not. People are afraid they are not being politically correct. For some people, being politically correct is not talking about race at all.”
Both the RACE and American I Am exhibits dealt with race, but not in an accusatory manner, Archibald said.
“We are not accusing anyone of racism,” he said in a 2011 interview. “We are trying to overcome the barriers and boundaries and distinctions between people based on race.”
Dealing with difficult topics
Archibald said people expect the museum to be a neutral forum for these debates and exhibits.
“If we don’t get some reaction, then what we’re doing is not very important,” he said. “It’s important to deal with difficult topics but never to push people away, because in doing so you lose audience, and when you lose audience you lose effectiveness.”
The museum continually brings the conversation of race during workshops for both adults and children.
The museum has also highlighted several local African-American legends and groundbreaking institutions. The Katherine Dunham exhibit not only covered her legacy as a dancer, but her work as an activist, teacher and one of the first African-American women anthropologists. The exhibit included over 50 performance costumes and 400 boxes of archival and photographic materials related to her life and career.
In 2001 the museum staged a landmark exhibition on Miles Davis and American Culture under Archibald’s leadership, lending scholarly and archival scrutiny to the legendary East St. Louis composer and bandleader. “You see history here through the eyes of an African American man battling against stereotypes of how an African-American was allowed to engage an audience,” Archibald told The Riverfront Times.
The museum has collections of George Winston Cloyd, a former St. Louis County Circuit Court Judge, Herman H. Dreer, a former local educator and author, Izetta Reddick, a female African-American chiropodist, and others. It also features collections of Gateway National Bank of St. Louis, the first African-American-owned bank in Missouri, and Homer G. Phillips Hospital.
With the upcoming Question Bridge exhibit, attendants will witness several “rap sessions” that black men have on a regular basis – conservations you might hear in the living room or in a parking lot, said MK Stallings.
“We are bringing those conversations into the public sphere of a museum so now more than just black men can witness them,” Stallings said. “These people are individuals who have seen a lot of things and who are wise. You’ll get a sense of the wisdom that these men possess and be reminded of the wisdom that’s around us everyday.”
