blkfreedom.org
The National Civil Rights Museum (NCRM) has joined five other leading African American museums and historical institutions to launch a virtual commemoration of Juneteenth, a nationally recognized holiday that celebrates the day that the Emancipation Proclamation was enforced, ending slavery in Texas.
The collective of museums, who are all part of the Association of African American Museums, will air a video presentation on blkfreedom.org, featuring conversations with Lonnie G. Bunch III, the first African American and first historian to serve as the secretary of the Smithsonian Institution; Dr. Johnetta Betsch Cole, anthropologist, educator, museum director, and the first female African American president of Spelman College; and Carla Hayden, librarian of Congress, the first woman and the first African American to lead the national library.
“Everybody who's been involved in the planning process are all colleagues of ours,” says Dr. Noelle Trent, director of interpretation, collections, and education for the NCRM. “We’ve known each other for years. And where the conversation started out was, different institutions had different levels of Juneteenth commemorations that were happening. And with COVID-19, the pandemic, everybody was forced to rework some things. So it became part of a conversation of, ‘hey, you guys kind of do this thing really well.’ What would happen if we put all of our efforts together and came up with a national collaborative that would launch digitally? This conversation began around the end of April. So this is pre-George Floyd. This is pre-everything. This was, ‘We are all shut down right now. How can we bring resources together to bring attention to the work that we do and offer people a way to celebrate Juneteenth in this new reality that we find ourselves in?’”
In addition to the aforementioned discussions, each museum will contribute segments that include singing, dancing, reflections, and spoken word. NCRM will contribute a pre-recorded children’s story time from its Small but Mighty Storytime series with a reading of Floyd Cooper’s Juneteenth for Mazie.
Then, later that day, NCRM will contribute pre-recorded panel discussions hosted by the NCRM and Historic Mitchelville Freedom Park, featuring conversations with Dr. Deirdre Cooper Owens, professor of the history of medicine and director of the Humanities in Medicine Program at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and Dr. Hasan Kwame Jeffries, associate professor of history at Ohio State University.
“Both of them have done a lot of work in African American history,” says Trent. “We had those two in conversation with each other and talked about the meaning of freedom then and now. How did that evolve? And what should Juneteenth look like in 2020? How should we celebrate? What’s the meaning of that celebration in this moment?”
Trent says that the NCRM will also be engaging with people via social media by asking them what freedom means to them.
“This is a time as the community is dealing with racial tensions within the country to really think about what this means in this moment,” says Trent. “There is a lot of pain, anger, frustration, and sadness happening, but this is a moment to celebrate. And it’s not unusual for the African American community to find joy in the midst of sorrow, and that’s what we really hope people do. But we also hope that we inspire people to think about how they can further this fight for freedom.”
Visit the NCRM’s official website for more information.
