USING SOCIAL HISTORY IN EXHIBIT MAKING: “FROM VICTORY TO FREEDOM” AS A CASE STUDY

By Floyd Thomas, Jr., Curator, National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center, Wilberforce

Local History Notebook September / October 1992

Museums today are largely products of their own pasts--products of particular sets of people who established and supported them by contributing their time, talents, and patronage. Museums are also products of the people who have administered them and cared for and interpreted their collections. Both of these groups have tended to be "establishment"-oriented and have emphasized a "Chamber of Commerce" version of the community's past. This selective memory has often obscured the history of Americans excluded from the political and social elite, and fostered a feeling among them that museums are antithetical to their interests and concerns. If one adopts the premise that this kind of situation is not desirable, that it is "better" to be inclusive rather than exclusive, that museums are educational institutions for the entire community, then "social history" clearly becomes a guiding focus for exhibit making. Social history focuses on everyone's experiences.

A Case in Point

Grounded in the social history approach, "From Victory to Freedom: Afro-American Life in the Fifties" at the National Afro-American Museum in Wilberforce documents the history of a people who were commonly marginalized or excluded from standard interpretations of the American past. One might logically assume (and correctly) that this permanent exhibition would hold special meaning for African Americans. As one might expect, almost all of the artifacts on display have an African American provenance. It would be incorrect and unfortunate, however, to conclude that only black Americans would find the exhibit a meaningful and enlightening experience. As a tour of the exhibit reveals, African American history is a drama of many players in the black community and in the broad spectrum of humanity.

A social history focus is apparent in the introduction to "From Victory to Freedom." The opening panel states, "This exhibition explores Afro-American life between the end of World War 11 and the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965. The objects and images you will see speak about Afro-American families and jobs, schools, and churches, organizations and musical forms, which together made up a complex social world." The text notes that the African American experience affected and is germane to everybody. “This exhibition interprets a critical period in our nation’s history when Afro-Americans struggled for freedom, won many victories, and launched political movements that changed the lives of all Americans."

Let us wend our way through the exhibition, noting how the emphasis on social history reveals both commonalties and differences in the lives of African Americans and their fellow citizens. Through the open doors of the gallery the visitor can view an icon of the era, a 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air. With its gleaming chrome, this classic automobile symbolizes the prosperity of the first period in which an average American fancily could afford a car. A child's bicycle and a toddler's pedal car share a raised platform with the Chevrolet, and accentuate the importance of mobility that characterized the period. African Americans were on the move from rural countrysides to urban centers, seeking better employment and educational opportunities, and freedom from Jim Crow laws. From southern homes they headed "up North" and "out West." America's love affair with the automobile was not unique to the black community--it was an American experience.

The Photomural

Once visitors have entered the exhibit space, they are engulfed by a twenty-two-foot-high photomural montage that surrounds the 5,000 square-foot gallery. In preparation of the montage, the exhibit curators examined thousands of photographs from the Museum’s collection and other sources around the country. The mural designer, Dan Williams, was charged "to select and artistically assemble images that convey a sense of the diversity and complexity of American society during the fifties." Incorporating over two hundred fifty images within thematic units, Dan Williams met the challenge.

Williams’ photomural reveals an American society that is both rural and urban, where people live on farms and work from dawn to dusk and where they live in tenements and punch a time clock. Images of people predominate-men and women, girls and boys of various ethnic and cultural identities, infants, old folks, leaders and followers. People work, play, fight, watch television, attend a political convention, swim in the ocean. Included are images of the famous, infamous, and anonymous--Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, Bob Hope, Jack Benny, Duke Ellington, Nat "King" Cole, Harry Truman, Ralph Bunch, Thurgood Marshall, and the Warren Court among the famous. Almost everyone can find a number of images in the photomural that elicit memories of his own experience or bring to mind stories told by a mother or father.

A Role for Sound

Along the passageway to the core of the exhibit visitors pass a jukebox that plays music created by African American artists of the fifties. Some of the artists were only heard in African American communities; some received broader exposure on radio; some gained national prominence only when popularized by Pat Boone, Elvis Presley, and other white artists. The impact of African American music on American society is an important theme throughout the exhibition.

The Lead-In

Along the last wall leading to the core of the exhibit the visitor encounters images of World War 11 and the period immediately preceding the fifties. The Tuskegee Airmen loom large in the photomural, as do African American men and women working in civilian jobs from which they had previously been excluded.

The first exhibit case has uniforms of black servicemen and women and awards they won for courage and sacrifice during the war. The uniforms are arranged in a "V" for victory. Like other Americans, blacks endured the dangers and hardships of military service but they were placed in segregated units and did not have equal opportunity. Through exhibit panels, visitors learn that African Americans were fighting for a "double victory"--victory abroad against a racist foreign enemy, and victory at home against bigotry, discrimination, and Jim Crow. When the war was over and American troops came home, "GI" benefits enabled many to buy homes and to attend college. Many got married, and the "baby boom" was a hallmark of the era of the fifties. For African Americans, however, the victory at home was not yet won.

Heart of the Exhibit

With this introduction visitors enter the heart of the exhibit, which explores life in the African American community during the fifties. They learn why African Americans left the rural South and how they transformed the social and political landscape of America. Issues of class and status within the black community are explored. The importance of family life is shown in two period settings.

A middle class Southern home summons a sense of the familiar. Everyone can relate to the objects displayed. Tour guides often challenge visitors to find the clues that indicate the residence was the home of an African American family. Children eagerly respond by pointing to the photographs of black people on the walls and the Ebony and Our World magazines. A particularly observant and knowledgeable visitor may note the glass ashtray with the Greek letters of a black sorority. Without these items the period setting could be the home of any middle class family in America.

A barbershop and beauty parlor represent the importance of black businesses and the services they provided to the community. These places were community centers in which to enjoy an all-male or an all-female environment. Some became important organizing locations during the Civil Rights movement. Visitors can take the pulse of the community by listening in on the lively conversations between a barber and his customers and a hairdresser and her clients.

In a theater at the center of the gallery a twenty-seven minute award-winning audiovisual program titled "Music As Metaphor" shows how Afro-American music has evolved to reflect the dual identity of a people who are both African and American. A church scene, which represents the central institution of the African American community, may seem generic, but a brief recorded sermon and a gospel solo by fourteen-year-old Aretha Franklin give it identity and significance. Here visitors learn about the great diversity of religious expression within the African American community. They learn, too, that the black church was a social as well as a spiritual center of the community, and that the leadership of the Civil Rights movement emerged from the black church.

The period of the fifties was pivotal in the generations-old struggle for equality. An exhibit case of items associated with leisure activities offers reminders of the black experience at that time. A "Negro Traveler" catalog lists places African Americans could find "Vacation and Recreation Without Humiliation."

The final section of the exhibit and the photomural focuses on the transition from the fifties to the sixties. With images of Malcolm X and other Black Power activists and anti-war demonstrators, the photomural shows the turbulence of the new decade.

At The End

As they leave the gallery visitors can record their impressions of the exhibit at a voting booth, symbolic of one of the victories won during the fifties in the struggle for freedom and equality for everyone.

By interpreting the past from a social history perspective, "From Victory to Freedom" at the National Afro-American Museum makes the history and culture of African Americans accessible and meaningful to an audience of diverse cultural and educational backgrounds. By including everyone the exhibit reaches out to everyone.

Additional Reading

For a detailed discussion of social history see Jim Borchert, "Ordinary People and Everyday Life: Social History for Local Historical Organizations," Local History Notebook, Vol. 6, Issue 3, July/August 1990.

An in-depth discussion of the development of "From Victory to Freedom" can be found in Ideas and Images: Developing Interpretive History Exhibits, edited by Kenneth L. Ames, Barbara Franco, and L. Thomas Frye and published in 1992 by the American Association for State and Local History, Nashville, Tennessee.

The Local History Notebook is edited and published by the Ohio Historical Society's Local History Office in order to bring useful information to people working in the local history field. The selections of subjects and authors is based on the OAHSM Editorial Board's and the Local History Office's determination of issues which are timely in nature and lasting in scope. The reference inserts are copyrighted 1992 by the Ohio Historical Society. Reprints are available; please specify volume and number. For further information, contact: