After exploring the Black Citizenship in the Age of Jim Crow exhibit with my group, we have learned many things about the journey of African Americans during slavery to the civil rights movement and how they were able to fit into society. The exhibit started out with the American Civil War and how that event affected slavery. After slavery was abolished, African Americans started to experience the newly earned freedom that they didn’t have. They were now given things like education, the ability to buy property, and participation in politics. As they were continuing to fit into society, some people were still living in the past and decide to take action in their own hands to prevent African Americans’ freedom. The next topic focuses on the Civil Rights Movements and how Jim Crow laws prevented freedom and equality for African Americans. African Americans found ways to fight/protest against Jim Crow laws as part of the Civil Rights Movement. The exhibit also included African Americans during WWI and how they were treated. This exhibit contains much information about African American history and how we should remember these events.
Several artifacts struck me while exploring the exhibit. One of these artifacts shows a slave shackle labeled “Enslaved No More.” It was said that most slave owners after the abolition of slavery wouldn’t accept the 13th Amendment(which ended slavery) and kept their slaves. I feel like this artifact represents how slaves were treated and how restricted they are. They had no freedom to do anything and had no citizenship before the Civil War. Another artifact that caught my eye was a small model of what African Americans looked like in the eyes of white supremacists. Under “Prejudice in Pictures,” the model represents that African Americans were only seen as inferior. Connecting to a certain part of history, many Europeans during the Age of Imperialism saw themselves as “superior” and looked down on other races. This is an example of how history repeats itself. The final artifact that caught my eye was a picture called “True Sons of Freedom.” African Americans were finally able to serve and represent their own country. It shows how much effort African Americans had to go through to achieve victory. All these artifacts connect to one topic, the struggles African Americans have to go through in order to truly be free and become citizens.
I really liked your overview of the exhibit. It gave me insight to what you learned and what I would be able to expect to learn going into the exhibit. I also liked your choice of artifacts. Specifically, I found it interesting that slave owners rejected the thirteenth amendment. I wonder if they go deeper into this topic in the exhibit.