African American Museum - Written and Photographed by Rashid Fehmi

While the sun sets history is preserved

The African American experience is the lens through which we understand what it is to be an American. 

LONNIE G. BUNCH IIIFounding Director, NMAAHC

African American History Museum in Washington DC.  

Inside the museum overlooking the Gift Shop.

Through the African American Lens

The museum’s 12 inaugural exhibitions focus on broad themes of history, culture and community. These exhibitions have been conceived to help transform visitors’ understanding of American history and culture and to help visitors adapt to and participate in changing definitions of American citizenship, liberty and equality. 

The value of education 

Whether enslaved or free, of limited means or privileged background African American, contrary to the common belief, viewed education the key to changing their status.  Communities banded together to build and support schools. Despite various obstacles, African Americans quest for education from the basics to higher intellectual pursuits established a lasting legacy of achievement.

 Howard University has overcome many crisis but is still seen as one of the premier educational institution.  Notable Alums include Elijah Cummins, congressman from Maryland, Kamala Harris, Senator from California, Nnamdi Azikiwe, first president of Nigeria and many more.

A Howard University Class

And then there was the biggest crowd of the First Black President of the United States who attended Harvard along with his wife Michelle 

Separate but Equal 
Looking back this may have been one of the biggest injustice to human kind by the US Supreme Court. The doctrine was confirmed in the Plessy v. Ferguson Supreme Court decision of 1896, which allowed state-sponsored segregation. Though segregation laws existed before that case, the decision emboldened segregation states during the Jim Crow era, which had commenced in 1876 and supplanted the Black Codes, which restricted the civil rights and civil liberties of African-Americans during the Reconstruction Era.  It took almost 60 years for the Supreme Court to overturn this doctrine and another 30 years for the Era to end.  
Even in 2018 question arises whether the era has really ended. 

Unimaginable - For all the millennials and the younger generation out there it would be unimaginable that humans could be bought on an auction. 




If Slavery had not been abolished, auctions may have been made on smart phones via Ebay and the product shipped by FedEx or USPS.

Slave Trade in the U.S.

Almost sixty years before slavery came to an end in the U.S., international slave trade was already prohibited. Internal slave-trading however still happened regularly within the U.S. borders, and the slave population peaked at four million people before slavery was abolished.

Slavery officially ended in the United States on December 6, 1865, after the 13th amendment to the constitution was passed and ratified, abolishing slavery across the nation. The 13th amendment states that nobody should work as a slave or involuntary servant, except if forced by law as punishment for a crime committed. This amendment was passed after the Civil War.

Some people think that slavery ended with Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation in September 22, 1862, where he declared all slaves in the U.S. free, but this was only the first step. Only setting the slaves free wouldn’t help, slavery as a whole needed to be made illegal and prosecutable by law. For this reason the 13th amendment was passed.

It was the most horrific act where the entire family was auctioned off one by one to the highest bidders who would take each member as their own property and walk away segregating the members of the family, who would never meet again.

The Slavery officially ended but the atrocities continued 

The Till case, which staggered the nation after the boy’s open-coffin funeral and the publication of photographs of his mutilated body, has never faded away, especially in a region still grappling with the horrors of its past. Even in recent years, historical markers about the case have been vandalized.  Emmet Till alleged crime was that he offended a white women in her grocery store by smiling at her.  She also accused him of physical and verbal advances.  The culprits confessed but were acquitted.  The case has been recently re-opened.  

Till or Tamir Rice,  smiling or playing with a toy gun the results for young black men has not changed.  They still end up in a coffin.  What has to happen to change this?

The Rise of the Ku Klux Klan - 1865, just three years before the so called end of the era of segregation KKK was born in Tennessee. Confederate veterans organized themselves to continue to spread fear and discourage African Americans from voting and running for office.  They also threatened Republican politicians.  

Not sure if some politicians still feel threatened and follow a hidden agenda.

Even in 2018 a white Republican senator from Mississippi made a partial apology after publicly saying that she would “be in the front row” of a “public hanging” if invited by a political supporter.  Her claim like all others "My Words were Twisted".

And then there was Music and Art - African Americans reverted to Music to forget the atrocities.  It is not clear how African-American Vernacular English (AAVE), known less precisely as Black Vernacular, Black English Vernacular (BEV), , or colloquially Ebonics came about but there are distinct differences in pronunciations and emphasis of vowels. 

The Museum has total 10 stories.  Five above ground and five below. The deeper you go the more solemn it gets.  The Exhibits including the Southern Railway Coach was lowered into the basement as the construction went on.  

For a non African American person it is hard to imagine what they had to go through.  As a visitor you could easily spend a full day in the museum and still only scratch the surface.  It is a must see for non African American, especially school students.