Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture

Due to the loss of power, our museum is closed today, September 21. If you have passes to visit today, your passes may be used another day and will be valid through December 31, 2026.

For the latest updates, please visit: https://nmaahc.si.edu/visit/plan-your-visit/museum-closing

📸 Rob Stewart/NMAAHC

in 1963, Iota Phi Theta Fraternity, Inc. was founded on the campus of Morgan State University just days after the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing. The founding members established the motto: "Building a Tradition, Not Resting Upon One!"

📸 1. Courtesy of Delaware State University/Getty Images. 2. Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Iota Phi Theta Fraternity, Inc.

🗞 Applications are now open for our 🌸 ️Spring 2025 internships!

Interns will have opportunities to work closely with museum professionals and scholars through a dynamic learning environment with access to supportive mentors.

Virtual, hybrid and onsite opportunities are available. Apply today: https://s.si.edu/434KJ4x

We are excited to announce the release of our book, Game Changers: Sports Photographs from the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Organized around key moments in the history of African American sports, explores the sometimes-complex world of athletes, their sports, and their impact on American culture on and off the field. While football, basketball, baseball, and boxing are prominently featured, the book also includes images of male and female athletes, amateur and professional, competing in gymnastics, track and field, skiing, golf, tennis, and other sports. It is the first in the Double Exposure series to include photographs from the Johnson Publishing Company Archive, co-owned by our museum and the Getty Research Institute.

Learn more: https://s.si.edu/3Zp8zd0

📸 Book image cover: Doug Williams, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 1978. Photograph by Vandell Cobb. Johnson Publishing Company Archive. Courtesy Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture and J. Paul Getty Trust.

in 1963, a bomb planted by the Ku Klux Klan ripped through the 16th Street Baptist Church, in Birmingham, Alabama, killing 4 little girls—11-year-old Carol Denise McNair, and 14-year-olds Carole Robertson, Cynthia Diane Wesley and Addie Mae Collins—and injuring several others.

This atrocity marked the third bombing in 11 days in Birmingham, Alabama, following the federal court order integrating Alabama schools. Shards from the church's stained-glass window are on display in our exhibition "Defending Freedom, Defining Freedom: The Era of Segregation" as a reminder of this tragic incident.

Racially motivated attacks on Black people, their homes and their churches grew so common that the city was referred to as “Bombingham.” African American civil rights activists made Birmingham a focal point of their desegregation campaign.

Learn more: s.si.edu/3iz7qHs



📸 1. Family members comfort a younger relative following a funeral service. September 18, 1963. Courtesy of Bettman/Getty Images. 2. Courtesy of Bettman/Getty Images. 3. Stained glass rosette shard from the 16th Street Baptist Church. Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of the Family of Rev. Norman C. "Jim" Jimerson and Melva Brooks Jimerson. 4. Denise McNair in front of her home with her mother Maxine McNair on Mother's Day 1963. Courtesy of Chris McNair/Getty Images.

James Earl Jones came into this world on a mission all his own, the actor who forged his way through considerable obstacles to create a formidable presence on stage and screen and on the nation’s cultural landscape. Through his decades-long career, the nation watched and grew to admire him in daytime TV drama, feature films and Broadway theater. His work earned him some of the industry’s highest honors; among them were two Emmys, a Golden Globe, two Tony Awards, a Grammy and a special Tony for lifetime achievement.

The life of James Earl Jones is filled with exceptional stories, told in ways that are uniquely his—extraordinary, life enriching, unforgettable. Read more about his life and legacy: https://s.si.edu/4grXu18.

📸 1. Courtesy of Afro American Newspapers/Gado/Getty Images. 2. Actor James Earl Jones is joined by director Lloyd Richards, actress Mary Alice, and playwright August Wilson, 1987. Photograph by Monroe Frederick II. Johnson Publishing Company Archive. Courtesy J. Paul Getty Trust and Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. 3. James Earl Jones and Mary Alice win the Tony Award for their roles in the play “Fences” written by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson. Photograph by Monroe Frederick II. Johnson Publishing Company Archive. Courtesy J. Paul Getty Trust and Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. 4. Courtesy of Bruce Glikas/FilmMagic/Getty Images.

“Music has the power to stop time. The songs act like a chemical process that isolates certain feelings; maybe one song helps us illuminate the jubilation and one helps illuminate the sorrow. Music has the power to stop time, but it also keeps time.” - Questlove

We've seen and loved the fantastic pictures you've taken in our Musical Crossroads exhibit in our culture galleries. Whether in front of Chuck Berry's Cadillac or George Clinton's Mothership, you look picture-perfect!



📸 1. Photo: on Instagram 2. Photo: on Instagram 3. Photo: on Instagram 4. Photo: on Instagram 5. Photo: on Instagram 6. Photo: on Instagram

"Do not underestimate the power of a people who can put together the powers of ownership with the determination to have their voices and images firmly planted in the fields of the culture they have cultivated." – Benny Andrews

Our latest book "Reckoning: Protest. Defiance. Resilience." explores how visual art has provided a rich outlet for protest, commentary, escape, and perspective for African Americans. This collection of essays and images is based on our exhibition of the same name, which opened in our Rhimes Family Foundation Visual Arts Gallery in 2021.

Grab a copy today to explore works from artists like Barkley L. Hendricks, Deborah Roberts, Amy Sherald, Lava Thomas and more: https://s.si.edu/4e04PD9

📸 1. Miss Brown to You, 1970. Barkley L. Hendricks (1945–2017) Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of the National Endowment for the Arts, © Barkley L. Hendricks. Courtesy of the Estate of Barkley L. Hendricks and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York. 2. 80 days, 2018. From the series Nessun Dorma. Deborah Roberts (b. 1962) Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture and National Portrait Gallery, Museum purchase through the American Women’s History Initiative Acquisition Pool, administered by the Smithsonian American Women’s History Initiative and generously supported by American Express, © Deborah Roberts. 3. Breonna Taylor, 2020. Amy Sherald (b. 1973) Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, purchase made possible by a gift from Kate Capshaw and Steven Spielberg / The Hearthland Foundation and the Speed Art Museum, Louisville, KY, purchase made possible by a gift from the Ford Foundation, © Amy Sherald.

“We are determined to work and fight until justice runs down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.” -- Martin Luther King Jr.



📸 1. Photo: on Instagram 2. Photo: on Instagram 3. Photo: on Instagram 4. Photo: on Instagram 5. Photo: on Instagram 6. Photo: on Instagram 7. Photo: on Instagram

in 1915, Carter G. Woodson founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History in Chicago, Illinois. The organization promoted, researched, preserved, interpreted, and disseminated information about Black life, history, and culture.

ASALH: Association for the Study of African American Life and History
continues to instill pride and dignity in African Americans by charting past and current triumphs and community achievements. Under Woodson’s pioneering leadership, the Association created research and publication platforms for Black scholars including the Journal of Negro History in 1916.

10 years later, in 1926, Woodson initiated the celebration of “Negro History Week,” as an Association outreach program for Black people of all ages. It coincided with the birthdays of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln, and in 1976, expanded to include the entire month of February as .

📸 Courtesy of Hulton Archive/Getty Images.

This month our Robert F. Smith Center for the Digitization and Curation of African American History is in St. Louis for our 2024 Community Curation Program! During the month of September, we’ll be working with great community partners including the The Griot Museum of Black History, Cardinal Ritter College Prep, and the Scott Joplin House State Historic Site.

From Sept. 5 through Sept. 29, our team will focus on digitizing materials for the community and local organizations while also introducing signature programs such as A Seat at the Table and Historically Speaking, along with events designed for the local communities of St. Louis and East St. Louis.

Learn more and register here: https://s.si.edu/4c6Gee9



📸 1. Photo of CK Ming working on film in the digitization truck. Photo by Robert Stewart/NMAAHC. 2. Photo of Digitization Truck. Photo by Leah L. Jones/NMAAHC.

📅 This month, embrace the arrival of autumn and join us for Meditation Mondays, where we explore mindfulness and reflect on the journey of Black Americans toward liberation. Plus, don't miss our virtual art workshop on designing your own trinket dish. And are you interested in volunteering at the museum?

Discover more about our volunteer opportunities and our September events: https://s.si.edu/47wlfB7

To every individual, every family, each group small or large, each community who has made the trip to our museum to learn, engage, question, challenge, celebrate and absorb – we see you, and we thank you. Your voices and collaboration as visitors and stewards of our history are what makes our museum the powerful space that it is for millions of guests from every corner of the world. We owe an immense amount of gratitude to you, not only for visiting, but for sharing your unique experiences and stories.



📸 1. Photo: on Instagram 2. Photo: on Instagram 3. Photo: on Instagram 4. Photo: on Instagram 5. Photo: on Instagram 6. Photo: on Instagram 7. Photo: on Instagram 8. Photo: on Instagram 9. Photo: on Instagram

Reckoning: Protest. Defiance. Resilience showcases visual art’s dynamic and potent role in African American history and culture. Featuring nearly 100 artworks, this 224-page hardcover book explores how visual art has provided a rich outlet for protest, commentary, escape and perspective for African Americans. This publication includes a wide range of mediums featuring Black artists such as Amy Sherald, Benny Andrews, Sheila Pree Bright, Bisa Butler, Charles Alston, Elizabeth Catlett, Shaun Leonardo, David Hammons and many more.

Learn more: https://s.si.edu/3X7HDMh

📸 Book image cover: I Go To Prepare A Place For You, 2021. Bisa Butler (b. 1973). Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, purchased through the American Women’s History Initiative Acquisitions Pool, administered by the Smithsonian American Women’s History Initiative, © Bisa Butler.

In June 1894, President Grover Cleveland signed legislation declaring the first Monday of each September as a national holiday to honor the contributions of American workers and to recognize the value of the American labor movement. In fact, workers had proposed a national holiday in the early 1880s and by 1894, 30 states had already officially celebrated .

This was the era of the celebrated industrial capitalists and financiers, the Robber Barons, and the inventors such as Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse, as conceived by the workers, however, Labor Day was not just a holiday. It was a day to “speak truth to power,” demanding a livable wage, safe working conditions, and the eight-hour day.

Unfortunately, Black workers were generally excluded from trade unions and basically ignored in the acknowledgement of labor’s contributions to the nation. Black workers were left to organize or fend for themselves.

In 1869, Isaac Myers, a Baltimore ship caulker, founded the Colored National Labor Union which brought together representatives from other Black unions. After Reconstruction, many smaller associations in southern urban centers like Richmond, Virginia, Galveston, Texas, and New Orleans, Louisiana began to emerge. ⁣

The American Federation of Labor, founded in 1881, did not recognize African American labor unions until 1925. At that time, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, America’s largest all-Black labor union, founded and led by A. Philip Randolph was admitted.

View photographs from our collection documenting African Americans at work throughout the decades: https://s.si.edu/45zNP2t



📸 1. Courtesy of National Archives/Interim Archives/Getty Images. 2. Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift from Charles A. Harris and Beatrice Harris in memory of Charles "Teenie" Harris, © Carnegie Museum of Art, Charles "Teenie" Harris Archive. 3. Courtesy of Bettmann/Getty Images. 4. Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, © Estate of Lloyd W. Yearwood.

in 1963, the for Jobs and Freedom brought nearly 250,000 people to the nation’s capital to protest racial discrimination and show support for civil rights legislation pending in Congress.

For its resolute battle towards racial unity, social equity, and spiritual reckoning, The March on Washington, formed Black America’s greatest love note to the world. Precipitated by increased racial hostilities in the wake of desegregation legislation and the murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till, the March on Washington sought equal access to the rights and protections guaranteed under citizenship.

Identifying the Black community’s commitment to remain “wed” to the nation by upholding its mores and values, the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom demanded the legitimacy of connubial ties through full citizenship.

Immerse yourself in our museum’s resources, stories, collection items and video interviews surrounding the history of the March on Washington and the unique political and cultural impact it had on organizers, participants, and the nation: https://s.si.edu/3yVc4gu

📸 1. Photograph by G. Marshall Wilson. Johnson Publishing Company Archive. Courtesy J. Paul Getty Trust and Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. 2. and 4. Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Kitty Kelley and the Estate of Stanley Tretick, © Smithsonian Institution. 3. Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of James H Wallace Jr., © Jim Wallace. 5. Photograph by Norman L. Hunter. Johnson Publishing Company Archive. Courtesy J. Paul Getty Trust and Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.

in 1955, a murder took place in Money, Mississippi. 14-year-old Emmett Till was kidnapped in the middle of the night by two white men, Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam. They tortured, beat and shot the teenager, casting his body into the Tallahatchie River tied to a cotton gin fan.

For African Americans, the murder of Till was evidence of the decades-old codes of violence exacted upon Black men and women for breaking the rules of white supremacy in the Deep South. Particularly for Black men, who, like Till, found themselves under threat of attack or death for s*xual advances towards white women – which often were fabricated claims. As recently as June of this year, an arrest warrant was uncovered in Mississippi for Carolyn Bryant Donham, the White woman whose false claim instigated Till’s attack. Till’s brutal murder, and his mother Mamie’s call to display his open casket to the world, reverberated a need for immediate change.

In an effort to provide a space for history, truth, reconciliation and healing, the museum acquired Emmett Till’s original casket. The powerful object not only helps tell the difficult history of racial violence and the Civil Rights movement, but it also gives pause to visitors and makes them reflect in the same way his mother encouraged the public to do so in 1955.



📸 Photograph of Emmett Till with his mother, Mamie Till Mobley. Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of the Mamie Till Mobley family.

James Baldwin understood the power of his words to heal, educate, transform, and defend the rights of the marginalized. A defender of human rights, Baldwin helped raise public awareness of racial and s*xual oppression during one of the nation’s most aggressive eras of social change. Baldwin wrote in “Notes of a Native Son,” his 1955 collection of essays on issues of race in America and Europe, that “everything depends on how relentlessly one forces from this experience the last drop, sweet or bitter, it can possibly give.”

Baldwin wrote commentaries, novels, screenplays, and poetry – each stoking controversy and exploring the cultural and structural biases he encountered. From his debut novel “Go Tell It on the Mountain,” (1953) to the fiery essays of “The Fire Next Time,” (1963), Baldwin's words, as his friend and fellow writer Toni Morrison described, "made American English, honest." Giving his eulogy in 1987, Morrison said, “Yours was the courage to live life in and from its belly as well as beyond its edges, to see and say what it was, to recognize and identify evil but never fear or stand in awe of it.”



Explore: https://s.si.edu/3YCCmhU

📸 Courtesy of Afro American Newspapers/Gado/Getty Images.

Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture Journey through the lens of the African American experience.

in 1920, the was ratified, stating that the right to vote couldn’t be denied based on s*x. However, Black women, amongst other marginalized communities, still faced barriers to voting, including waiting hours to register, violence, tests and more.

📸 Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Frances Albrier Collection.

in 1887, Pan-Africanist Marcus Garvey was born. Garvey spent his life urging pride in African identity & advocated for emigration to Africa.

📸 Courtesy of Library of Congress, 2003653533.

James Baldwin remained relentless in his criticism of everyday Americans working to systemically hold hostage the bounty of the American dream based on race. Though he embraced France as the seat of his creativity, the tumult of civil disobedience unfolding across America and broadcasting across international airwaves stirred Baldwin to journey home.

Specifically, it was the 1963 mob violence that erupted in response to James Meredith’s attempts to integrate ‘Ole Miss that moved Baldwin to action. Baldwin began a lecture tour of a dozen appearances throughout the South, including speeches in Greensboro, North Carolina, and New Orleans, Louisiana. His bold examinations of white men’s fears and beliefs surrounding race challenged audiences to face the growing volatility of racial injustice with a spirit of reconciliation.

Baldwin also joined other notable Americans in marches to support the efforts of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Baldwin wrote in the 1965 New York Times piece, The American Dream and the American Negro that “I am not a ward of America, I am not an object of missionary charity, I am one of the people who built the country--until this moment comes there is scarcely any hope for the American dream. If the people are denied participation in it, by their very presence they will wreck it.”



Explore: https://s.si.edu/3YCCmhU

📸 Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, © Sedat Pakay 1966.

in 2014, the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson became “ground zero” for a human rights rebellion that propelled the Black Lives Matter movement to the forefront of national media. An exchange between 18-year-old Michael Brown and a police officer, Darren Wilson, escalated into a scuffle and ended in Brown’s death. A public, already leery of relations between law enforcement and African Americans, since the Trayvon Martin murder three years earlier, grew further incensed when witnesses reported Brown had no weapons and had his hands raised when fired upon. Eyewitnesses also accused officers with depraved indifference for leaving Brown’s body lying in the streets for four hours after the incident. Protests turned increasingly angry, giving way to days of civil unrest, the opening of an FBI investigation, and the arrival of the U.S. National Guard to end the rebellion.

It was important to capture the narratives and sentiments that perpetuated Brown’s murder and the subsequent rebellion that began in and spread across the nation as “living history.” Doing so helps document actions, actors, and accounts for future generations.

“This was a pivotal moment in the history of the Black Lives Matter movement, as Michael Brown’s death led to worldwide protests,” then NMAAHC Director Lonnie Bunch said. “The goal is to have a few central artifacts that give you many meanings.”

Learn more: https://s.si.edu/4d8SsnY

📸 1. Black Love Matters: Untitled by Zun Lee. October 10, 2014. Digital image of protestors along a police line in Ferguson, Missouri. Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Zun Lee, © Zun Lee. 2. Banner from a protest rally after the police shooting of Michael Brown. 2014. Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Bryan Walsh and Emily Bland, © Bryan Walsh/Emily Bland.

Due to mechanical issues impacting our operations, our museum is closed today, August 8. If you have passes to visit today, your passes may be used another day and will be valid through Wednesday, December 31, 2025.

For the latest updates, please visit: https://s.si.edu/3WbDCai

📸 Alan Karchmer/NMAAHC

On August 6th, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed The Voting Rights Act, which enforced the 15th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and made it illegal to place restrictions on federal, state, or local elections that would deny Blacks the right to vote. A speech by activist Fannie Lou Hamer in front of the Democratic National Convention that brought attention to the abuse that African Americans faced on the path to suffrage galvanized President Johnson to sign the Act.

After the passage of the Voting Rights Act, the law was weakly enforced or ignored, largely in the South and in areas where the Black population was large enough to threaten the political status quo.

📸 Courtesy of LBJ Library. Photo by Yoichi Okamoto.