‘Excellence’: Smithsonian exhibit celebrates HBCUs amid attacks on Black history
At a time when museums and colleges are facing uncertainty and there is a push to limit the acknowledgment of Black history, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) and its five partner historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) have launched a new exhibit to put Black history and Black archives at the forefront.At the Vanguard: Making and Saving History at HBCUs, on view at the NMAAHC now through 19 July, was developed as a part of the History and Culture Access Consortium (HCAC).After At the Vanguard leaves the NMAAHC, it will go on tour to each of the universities, along with other locations that request it.The exhibit, which is composed of archival materials and collections from each of the five HBCUs of the partnership – Jackson State University, Florida A&M University, Tuskegee University, Clark Atlanta University and Texas Southern University – is the culmination of years of work by the consortium.With more than 100 objects on display at the NMAAHC, the collection includes rare items, such as one of the only existing color videos of George Washington Carver, the agricultural scientist and inventor, from Tuskegee University.
Florida A&M University (FAMU) provided, along with many other items, a nursing cape and gown and a blood pressure machine from its nursing school,Jackson State University (JSU) contributed several items from the archives of Margaret Walker Alexander, the poet and novelist,And both Clark Atlanta University and Texas Southern University provided art, such as Frederick Flemister’s The Mourners, a painting depicting a mother grieving over her son who was lynched, and a ceramic bottle with glaze by the visionary sculptor and ceramist Carroll Harris Simms,The HCAC has helped the included institutions digitize their archives and collections to make them more accessible to the public,The exhibit and subsequent tour are part of that work.
Though the first HBCU, now known as Cheyney University, was founded in Pennsylvania in 1837, most of these schools were founded in the years preceding, during and just after the US civil war.HBCUs were not just places for Black Americans and the wider African diaspora to gain a formal education; the institutions have also been sites at which Black arts flourished, political movements developed and Black leaders found their footing.Alumni of HBCUs across the country include a wide-ranging group of artists and politicians, including Chadwick Boseman, Nikki Giovanni, Kwame Nkrumah, Ella Baker and Medgar Wiley Evers.Timothy Barber, the director of FAMU’s Meek-Eaton Black Archives Research Center and Museum, said that the efforts that people undertook to begin preserving Black history and culture show just how important they continue to be.“Our founder, Dr James N Eaton, in 1976, decided to begin collecting this history, making sure that we’re able to tell the story,” Barber said.
“The question is always asked: ‘What do we tell our children? Who will be around to tell that story?’ These museums, these archives serve as a catalyst for that story to be told.We’re not interpreting history in our fashion – what we’re doing is providing an opportunity for people to read and research history for themselves.”Some of FAMU’s included items highlight the university’s history as a land grant institution, which were federally funded colleges or universities teaching agriculture, military science and engineering as well as traditional liberal arts, allowing working-class people to attain a classical education.There are 19th-century wood carvings from Ghana, part of FAMU’s Field Spirits of the Fante collection, which includes a group of large wooden sculptures used for protection.Also included in the exhibit are items including pieces from the Tuskegee Institute’s pottery collection.
Many of Tuskegee’s buildings were created by students, which is represented by four handmade bricks from the school’s collection.Photographs by Doris Derby, Chester Higgins, Earlie Hudnall Jr and PH Polk, all of whom were affiliated with HBCUs and who documented Black student activism and cultural movements, are included, as are artworks collected by artists such as John Biggers, Elizabeth Catlett, Robert Pruitt and Renee Stout.Angela D Stewart, an archivist at Jackson State’s Margaret Walker Center, wants visitors to understand the impact and importance of the people who contributed to HBCUs along the way.“The exhibit includes things such as a Jackson State yearbook that was actually dedicated to Margaret Walker,” Stewart said.Walker was a professor of English at JSU, where she founded the Institute for the Study of the History, Life and Culture of Black People.
She was mentored by Black literary icons such as Richard Wright, WEB Du Bois and Langston Hughes and paid that guidance forward by mentoring Alice Walker, Sonia Sanchez and James Baldwin,A first edition of Margaret Walker’s only novel, Jubilee, is included in the exhibit, as are a 1942 print of her first published book of poetry, For My People, several of her personal journals, her typewriter and other items,An exhibit about HBCUs would be remiss without the inclusion of marching-band paraphernalia,An image of drum majors from the Sonic Boom of the South, Jackson State’s world-famous marching band, greets visitors of the exhibit, who can also view a drum major shako cap from FAMU’s legendary Marching 100 band and recorded albums of the college’s concert and marching band from the 1960s and 70s,“It’s one thing to hear about these stories, but it’s another thing to really see first-hand primary source material that speaks to the excellence of education and activity that has been nurtured for so many years here in America for people of color,” Barber said.
“I always say if you don’t know where you come from, you’ll never know where you’re going.These things allow people to be educated about their self-relevance and their place in this fabric of America.”
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Sydney motorists are paying up to 25 cents more for a litre of petrol now than they were before the start of the US-Israel war on Iran, as motoring groups accuse retailers of using the conflict as an excuse to gouge their customers.After Jim Chalmers instructed the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to keep an eye out for profiteering behaviour, a spokesperson for the watchdog said it had “observed average retail regular unleaded petrol prices in several cities moving higher over the last few days”.Motoring groups NRMA and RACQ have already accused retailers of price gouging, amid reports of long queues at some service stations as motorists rush to fill up before the surge in global crude oil prices feeds through to the bowser.It comes as Australians face the prospect of another interest rate hike, with Reserve Bank governor Michelle bullock warning there was a “live” chance of an increase this month as the global oil price spike adds to already high inflation.The roughly 15% jump in global oil prices since the start of the US-Israeli missile strikes should take seven to 10 days to begin to be reflected in the cost of fuel at Australian service stations, according to industry estimates
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The trial of a security gate in a Woolworths in Sydney has left customers concerned for their safety, with some saying the series of low-height bars have “hit” children in the arms, legs and face.Maria, who was shopping with her two children at Woolworths in Bass Hill in south-west Sydney on Wednesday, told Guardian Australia that she noticed the new entrance “straight away”.“The level that they’ve put it at, is the level of the kids in the pram,” said Maria, who asked that her surname not be published.“If you wanted to enter without hitting your child, you’d have to go in backwards.”Woolworths is trialling the new anti-theft entry gates in six stores, including Sydney’s Bass Hill and Camberwell in Melbourne’s east
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