American History Through an African American Lens

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Benjamin Banneker & The First American Protest Letter

Born in 1731 to freed slaves on a farm in Baltimore, Maryland, Benjamin Banneker was obsessed with math and science. And his appetite for knowledge only grew as he taught himself astronomy, mathematics, engineering, and the study of the natural world. As an adult, he used astronomy to accurately predict lunar and solar events, like the solar eclipse of 1789, and used his scientific expertise to pioneer new agricultural methods on his family’s tobacco farm. 

In 1792, Banneker began publishing almanacs. He was among the first Americans, and the first African-American, to publish almanacs. These provided detailed annual information on moon and sun cycles, weather forecasts, and planting and tidal time tables.

Banneker sent a handwritten copy of his first almanac to Virginia’s Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson. This was a decade before Jefferson became president. Jefferson read the almanac and wrote back in praise of Banneker’s work. 

Banneker included a letter imploring Jefferson to “embrace every opportunity to eradicate that train of absurd and false ideas and opinions” that caused prejudice against black people. The letter also denounced the Bill of Rights as disingenuous. Banneker questioned the rationale of the imperialistic position taken by the Founding Fathers, especially in light of their rebellion against the tyranny imposed on them by England as settlers seeking a better life in America.

Banneker’s correspondence with the future president is now considered to be one of the first documented examples of a civil rights protest letter in America. For the rest of his life, Banneker fought for this cause, sharing his opposition to slavery through his writing.

Banneker, in his debut almanac of 1792 , was the first to recommend the establishment of a U.S. Department of Peace. It wasn’t until nearly two hundred years later that the U.S. Institute of Peace was established by Congressional authorization in 1984. The organization acknowledges Banneker for his role as the pioneering agent of this idea and states:

The first formal proposal for the establishment of an official U.S. government peace institution dates to 1792. The product of efforts by architect and publisher Benjamin Banneker and physician and educator Dr. Benjamin Rush. The proposal called for establishing a “Peace Office” on equal footing with the War Department – noting the importance to the welfare of the United States of “an office for promoting and preserving perpetual peace in our country.

From the TED-Ed Lesson The exceptional life of Benjamin Banneker - Rose-Margaret Ekeng-Itua

Animation by Jun Zee Myers

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This month is Black History Month, or National African American History Month, an annual celebration of achievements by black Americans and a time for recognizing the central role of African Americans in U.S. history.

Today we are honoring Benjamin Banneker, a true renaissance man, who authored almanacs and worked as a surveyor, naturalist, and farmer. His correspondence with the Thomas Jefferson is now considered to be one of the first documented examples of a civil rights protest letter in America.

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Nat Turner’s Rebellion

Photo:  19th Century woodcut depiction of the Southampton Insurrection.

On August 21, 1831, Nat Turner, the notorious insurrectionist, began his rebellion.  Slave rebellions carried bloody consequences. Rebels were executed. Family, friends, and neighbors might be beaten and killed. In some cases, slaveholders placed the bloodied and dismembered bodies in public view to remind passersby of slavery’s awful power. Nevertheless, against terrible odds, enslaved people rebelled.

Turner was born into slavery on October 2nd, 1800 in Southampton County, Virginia. Even as a child, Turner was an intellectual who’d often describe events that happened before his birth. He was viewed as a prophet and grew up to be a religious man often taking to prayer and fasting rather than “mixing in society.” At the age of 21, he ran away but returned thirty days later after being told in a vision to return to the service of his earthly master. By May 12th, 1828, Turner had received other visions that told him that he was chosen by God to deliver his people from slavery. He was relocated multiple times as a result of his former masters’ deaths, until he came to the home of Joseph Travis in 1830. Travis was the new stepfather of his young master, Putnum Moore. After a year at Travis’s estate, Turner witnessed a solar eclipse which he took as a sign to begin planning his rebellion. He told four other men of his plans; Henry, Hark, Nelson, and Sam; they set the date for July 4th. However, Turner became ill and the rebellion was postponed.

Photo: Nat Turner was holding this Bible when he was captured two months after the rebellion. Turner worked both as an enslaved field hand and as a minister. A man of remarkable intellect, he was widely respected by black and white people in Southampton County, Virginia. He used his talents as a speaker and his mobility as a preacher to organize the slave revolt. This Bible was donated to the museum by descendants of Lavinia Francis, a slaveholder who survived the rebellion. Collection of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, gift of Maurice A. Person and Noah and Brooke Porter.

Their final sign showed itself on August 12th — an atmospheric disturbance that left the sun a bluish green color. They decided to strike at two in the morning on August 21st. The revolt began with the murder of Travis’s entire household. It ended with the deaths of about 55 white people slayed in their paths and the addition of 40 enslaved allies to their force. The next day, Turner and his allies were moving onward to the next town of Jerusalem. By this time, whites had gotten word of the rebellion and were ready to confront Turner. Out of fear, the rebels disbanded and soon Turner’s men were captured in their attempt to attack another house. Turner himself went into hiding for months but was apprehended on October 30th. He was executed on November 11th, 1831 and his corpse was brutalized.   

As a consequence of the rebellion, almost 200 enslaved people, many who were innocent, were killed at the hands of angry white mobsters. Others were tried and executed on accusations of participating in the revolt. Slaveholders were reimbursed for their dead property and slave codes were strengthened. Moreover, the rebellion solidified people’s views and positions on slavery from the blatant show of vexation towards it.

By Kyra, Social Media Intern, Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.

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The Creole Rebellion: One of the Most Successful Slave Revolts in American History

Photo: Slave ships on the ocean. Wood engraving by Smyth. 

In the Fall of 1841, 128 enslaved African Americans won their freedom aboard “The Creole” slave brig sailing from Richmond, Va. to New Orleans, La. One most the successful slave rebellions in U.S. History, Madison Washington and 18 other enslaved men took over “The Creole” from slave traders, passengers, and a 10 person crew.

Photo: Shackles, Gift from the Liljenquist Family Collection.

Demanding freedom, the enslaved had their captors sail them to Nassau in the British West Indies, where slavery was abolished. While most of the enslaved people on board gained immediate freedom, Washington and his collaborators were seized under charges of mutiny to answer for the slave trader killed in the revolt. The charges were ultimately dropped. It was decided that the African Americans on board “The Creole” were illegally enslaved and had the right to use force to gain their freedom.

 #APeoplesJourney

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In the late 1800s and well into the 1900s, racist images were common on everyday items such as toys, salt-and-pepper shakers, advertisements, and household figurines. The images served a common purpose–to justify the mistreatment of African Americans and the logic of segregation. They depicted African Americans as slow-witted, lazy, and untrustworthy, but still lovable and childlike souls who simply needed the oversight of white people to ensure they did no harm to themselves or others. The pervasiveness of stereotypical images like these made the civil rights efforts of African Americans even more difficult. If white people accepted these stereotypes, it became that much easier to deny African Americans the full rights of citizenship.  

Learn more about the history of African American tropes. Blackface: The Birth of an American Stereotype: s.si.edu/2ih4txi

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In the Crosshairs: Chuck D’s Logo for Public Enemy

Did you know that Chuck D, the frontman of iconic rap group Public Enemy, trained as a graphic designer? Also known as Carlton Ridenhour (b. 1960), Chuck D graduated in 1984 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Adelphi University in New York.

What is now Public Enemy’s instantly recognizable logo was designed by hand by Chuck D in 1986, the year the group was founded. He notes that at the time, there were “no computer[s] or Photoshop” to build designs – only the essentials, like magic markers, white-out, and Exacto knives.

Sketch of the Public Enemy logo, Chuck D (American, b. 1960), October 3, 2015, ink on paper. Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture, Gift of Chuck D of Public Enemy.

The ink on paper drawing in our collection reflects the sketch-like quality that Chuck D’s early mock-up of the Public Enemy logo must have had. The emcee specifically created this drawing for display in our Musical Crossroads exhibition. While completing the sketch, he explained to Museum Specialist Timothy Anne Burnside that the central figure’s silhouette was sourced from a picture of E Love next to LL Cool J and the text was first laid out using a stencil.

While people sometimes interpret the figure as a state trooper because of his hat, he is actually a representation of an African American B-Boy. His hat references one worn by hip-hop group Run-D.M.C.

The target through which we view the figure is identifiable as the crosshairs of a gun sight. “The crosshairs logo symbolized the black man in America,” explains Chuck D. As the graphic emblem of the politically engaged Public Enemy, the logo blatantly portrays the violence suffered by African Americans at the hands of the police and the state – in the eighties and still today. It also calls attention to Public Enemy’s role as, in Chuck D’s words, the “black CNN,” addressing issues of racial inequality that were otherwise overlooked by mainstream media.

To reflect Public Enemy’s political bent in the group’s overall look, Chuck D drew inspiration from bands like the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin, whose identities encompassed more than just their sound – but also their “sight” and “story.” From their logo to their album covers and uniforms, Public Enemy’s identifiable branding stems from Chuck D’s thoughtful initial design.

 “When it came to be around that potential time of making logos, I wanted to make something that understood what a logo could do, you know? Look at the Rolling Stones. The tongue and the lips say it all without you looking at the font. I wanted to be able to make something that detaches. I don’t think there’s too many logos out there that don’t deal with a font, that you can detach and know what it is. Wu-Tang is still the W, but that kinda comes close. But Public Enemy… no font whatsoever. Circle with a man, you know what it is.” -Chuck D

We don’t often stop to consider the impact of design elements like logos on our daily lives. These graphics shape our perceptions and understanding of the world around us. For entities like Public Enemy, who take on a radical position, visual choices become tied to activist engagement.

If you were to design a logo for a band today, how would it reflect our current political reality?

Check out more Public Enemy objects in the collection here.

Written by Maeve Coudrelle, Ph.D. student in Art History at Temple University and Summer 2017 Smithsonian Latino Museum Studies Program Fellow.

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Help the Smithsonian Preserve #HipHopHistory

"Hip-Hop helps us to understand the power of black music & the impact of African American culture on the world." -Lonnie G. Bunch III, Founding Director 

Hip Hop is the culture that redefined American music, that's why we've partnered with Smithsonian Folkways to bring a piece of what the museum does straight into households around the nation and world. The Smithsonian Anthology of Hip-Hop and Rap is box set including 9 CDs with approximately 130 tracks, and a 300-page, coffee-table book with essays and never-before-seen photographs and designs by Cey Adams, artist and founding creative director of Def Jam. The Anthology captures the evolution of hip hop from its earliest days in the 70s up to artists of today. Through the chosen tracks, essays, and extensive liner notes, the Anthology reveals the many trends, social and political implications of this multifaceted genre, and its influence on popular culture. 

Support #HipHopHistory today!  http://kck.st/2hE30RF

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Olympic Black Power Salute

#Onthisday in 1968, sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos clenched their fists in protest during the Mexico City Olympics. Their gesture attracted the attention of international audiences and gained support from around the world, however, Smith and Carlos were ostracized at home. Peter Norman, the Australian silver medalist, also joined the protest in solidarity by wearing an Olympic Project for Human Rights (OPHR) badge on his uniform.

During the medal ceremony for the 200-meter sprint, Smith and Carlos dressed in black socks and no shoes as a symbol for African American Poverty, a black glove symbolizing unity and strength, and a scarf and beads in honor of lynching victims. They bowed their heads and raised their fists as the United States National Anthem played. Following the protest, the U.S. Olympic Committee suspended the two athletes. #APeoplesJourney #ANationsStory

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American Graduate Day

American Graduate Day returns for its sixth year airing on PBS stations Saturday, October 14, 2017, from 2pm-6pm ET and live on Facebook.

Hosted by Soledad O'Brien, this live national, multi-platform broadcast event focuses on the individuals and organizations working in communities across the country to keep students on the path to graduation and career success.

In partnership with families and educators, the National Museum of African American History and Culture is in a unique position to support the youngest members of our society. Utilizing age-appropriate programming for children; resources for adults at the museum and online; professional development opportunities for educators; and research-based publications; the early childhood education initiative supports understanding and development of each child’s healthy racial identity, their joy in human diversity and inclusion, their sense of justice, and  their capacity to act for their own and others’ fair treatment.

Tune in to watch Anna Hindley explore why positive identity development is important for young children: bit.ly/2x0uAhw #AmGrad

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#SeatAtOurTable: art+justice with Amber Robles-Gordon

Through art + justice the museum provides a rare creative outlet where audiences can interact with professional artists, experience expert techniques in a variety of art practices, and explore motivations for creating art. Art projects are designed to accommodate all skill levels. Audiences can take home their creations.

art + justice is a platform for adults to explore the intersection of tactile art-making, thoughtful reflection, and personal enrichment. Through artist-led guided projects audiences unlock their creative potential within themselves, while also enjoying the opportunity to exchange ideas with community towards social justice. art + justice is a hands-on maker space that stimulates creative agency, while providing the mental and emotional space to work through complicated issues around race, gender, identity, and social cohesion.

Artist + Art Project: Washington, DC textile and mixed media artist, Amber Robles-Gordon leads a beginner’s-level art lesson creating “Talking Sticks” – a symbol used in many indigenous cultures to designate the authority to speak within a group setting. This symbolic art-making lesson reflects on the long history of community activism with the African American community and beyond and encourages dialogue while providing space for personal reflection and introspection.

Register today! s.si.edu/2wxbvnF

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Collecting Hip-Hop History

How can history museums include stories about hip-hop? Should they? What does it mean for hip-hop to be at the Smithsonian? Hip-hop is featured in multiple exhibitions in the NMAAHC, and this October, we aim to illuminate a few of those stories. Join Museum Specialist Timothy Anne Burnside on a Hip-Hop tour of the Museum on October 17th, 2017 from 9 am - 11 am. You’ll visit our “Beyond 1968,” “More Than A Picture,” “The Power of Place,” “Cultural Expressions,” and “Musical Crossroads” exhibitions. Timothy will showcase select objects related to hip-hop, share stories about how and why these objects came to the museum, and illustrate their significance within historical and contemporary narratives about African American music and culture. #HipHopHistory To engage audiences beyond the walls of the museum, we are hosting a tweetup! A group of social media users and history fans will be selected to attend the event as they share their experiences online for our digital audiences. Register your interest in attending the social by Monday, October 9, 2017. Even if you are not selected for this social, you can follow online and participate in the online discussion it generates.

Apply today! s.si.edu/2fJHzht

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The National Museum of African American History and Culture is the only national museum devoted exclusively to the documentation of African American life, history, and culture.

The Museum’s nearly 40,000 objects help all Americans see how their stories, their histories, and their cultures are shaped by A People’s Journey and A Nation’s Story.

From Harriet Tubman to Black Lives Matter, journey with us as we celebrate American history through the African American lens. #APeoplesJourney #ANationsStory

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#SlaveWrecks Preserves First Known Artifacts from a Slave Ship

“I think all Americans need to recognize that, as tragic and horrible as slavery was, as big an economic shadow as it cast, the one thing it didn’t do was strip people of their humanity. And I wish that all of us were as strong as the people that walked down those steps and got on those boats.” - Lonnie Bunch

Director Lonnie Bunch takes CBS’ Scott Pelley on a journey to Mozambique Island to discuss the ruins of the Sao Jose, a ship carrying cargo manifest records of 1,500 iron bars for ballast and more than 400 slaves bound for Brazil.

Read more on 60 Minutes. 

About the Slave Wrecks Project (SWP)

The Slave Wrecks Project (SWP) is a long-term collaboration between six core partners, including the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC), the U.S. National Park Service Submerged Resources Center (NPS SRC) and its Southeast Archaeological Center (NPS SEAC), the George Washington University Capitol Archaeological Institute (GWU CAI), IZIKO Museums of South Africa, the South African Heritage Resources Agency (SAHRA), and Diving With a Purpose (DWP). The project integrates research, training and education in the pursuit of new scholarship on the global slave trade, utilizing the lens of slave shipwrecks as its unique point of entry.

Lanae S., Social Media Specialist, Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. 

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Anthony Burns and the Falmouth Union Church

Photo: A portrait of the fugitive slave Anthony Burns, whose arrest and trial under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 touched off riots and protests by abolitionists and citizens of Boston in the spring of 1854. A bust portrait of the twenty-four-year-old Burns, “Drawn by Barry from a daguereotype [sic] by Whipple and Black,” is surrounded by scenes from his life.

“We went to bed one night old-fashioned, conservative, compromise Union Whigs, & waked up stark mad Abolitionists.” - Amos Adams Lawrence, on the Anthony Burns affair, 1854

Many of the slaves who utilized the Underground Railroad made it safely to freedom and never looked back on the world of bondage left behind. Anthony Burns is a unique individual whose journey along the Underground Railroad carried him out of slavery, back into it under Federal law, and then out of it again for good.

Burns, born into slavery in Stafford, Virginia in 1834, was no stranger to breaking the law. He served as a preacher at the Falmouth Union Church in Falmouth, Virginia, even though it was illegal for African Americans to be preachers. In early 1854, Burns ran away from his master and made his way to freedom in Boston. Under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, citizens of free states were required by Federal law to aid in the recovery of escaped slaves by their masters. This made Burns a wanted man despite having made it to Massachusetts, where slavery had been outlawed in the 1780s.

Burns was captured in May 1854 and tried under the Fugitive Slave Act in a highly publicized trial. He was found guilty and sent back to Virginia to resume his life of bondage. Boston abolitionists were determined to ensure that Burns lived the rest of his life as a free man. They raised the funds to purchase him from his master and set him free in 1855. Burns returned to Boston and received an education at Oberlin College in Ohio.

All along, Anthony Burns considered himself a member in good standing of the Baptist congregation at the Falmouth Union Church in Virginia, which was shared by Baptists, Methodists, Episcopalians, and Presbyterians. In July 1855, as a newly freed man, he asked the church for a “letter of dismission in fellowship and recommendation to another church” near Oberlin College. Unfortunately, Burns’ high profile past precluded him from receiving the letter he so desired. Having run away and refused to return voluntarily to his master, the church determined that Burns disobeyed “the laws of God and man” and was considered “a fugitive from labor.” Even though Burns was no longer considered a runaway slave and was legally a free man, the church body decided unanimously that he be “excommunicated from this communion and fellowship.” To add insult to injury, Burns was notified of the decision by receiving a copy of the Front Royal Gazette in which the decision had been published.

Burns moved to St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada in 1860, which had a large population of fugitive slaves. There, he became pastor at Zion Baptist Church. He died of tuberculosis at the age of 28 on July 17, 1862, right in the middle of the Civil War and less than six months before President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation.

Photo: Union Church on Hill, Falmouth, Stafford County, Virginia.

The Falmouth Union Church was used by Union soldiers as barracks and a field hospital numerous times during the Civil War. It was closed in 1935, damaged by a storm in 1950, and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2008. All that remains today is the narthex.

Written by T. Logan M.

T. Logan M. is a Museum Technician at the National Museum of African American History and Culture and is a Trustee of the Union Church Historic Site and President of the Union Church Preservation Project. More on the Union Church can be found athttp://www.falmouthunionchurch.org.

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Ten Shards of Stained Glass

Photo: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift from the Trumpauer-Mulholland Collection.

Just two weeks after the March On Washington, on September 15, 1963, white supremacists planted a bomb under the steps of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. The explosion killed four young girls attending Sunday school. 

This terrorist act was a brutal reminder that the success of the march and the changes it represented would not go unchallenged. In the face of such violence, the determination to continue organizing intensified. These glass shards are from the church's stained-glass window.

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NMAAHC Celebrates Our First Anniversary

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture will celebrate our first anniversary on Sept. 23rd–24th.

To commemorate the first anniversary, the Museum invites the public to two Community Day celebrations outside on the museum’s grounds with free activities to engage the public. 

Our Visitor Voices social campaign invites audiences to share aspects of their visit on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram using the hashtag #VisitorVoices.

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Hidden Herstory: African American Women and the Struggle for Equality

African American women have always been part of the African American struggle for full equality. Early freedom fighters like Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, and Anna Julia Cooper fought against multiple oppressions.

 In our new YouTube video, scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw explains how the intersections of these oppressions manifest today in the term she coined, "intersectionality."

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A Day in the Life of the People: Six Historic Events That Changed History

Filmmaker Ava DuVernay created the exclusive film August 28: A Day in the Life of A People. The film revolves around six historic events within the African American experience that changed the world, all occurring on August 28th. Through poetry, narrative, and visual elements, audiences are teleported to these moments—some painful, some hopeful. 

Photo: Filmmaker Ava DuVernay (center) with actor André Holland and actress Angela Bassett on set for the film “August 28th: A Day in the Life of a People.”

Abolition of Slavery in the British Empire (1833)

Photo: Gift from the Liljenquist Family Collection, Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.

The Slavery Abolition Act was passed by the British Parliament in 1833, effectively freeing 800,000 enslaved people in the British Caribbean, South Africa, and Canada. At the time, most enslaved Africans in the United States were still subjected to the laws of the American government which had not abolished slavery. Still, the passage of the act increased pressure for other colonial powers to outlaw slavery and laid the foundation for the Emancipation Proclamation which would come to pass 30 years later.

The Beginning of Motown (1961)

With an $800 loan from his family, former boxer and record store owner, Barry Gordy Jr. formed Motown Records. The iconic record company that provided a soundtrack to pivotal decades in U.S. history, and produced enduring Black musical acts such as Smokey Robinson, The Jackson 5, Diana Ross, Marvin Gaye, The Temptations, The Commodores, The Four Tops, and  Stevie Wonder. On August 28, 1961, Motown released its first hit, “Please Mr. Postman” by the Marvellettes.

The Murder of Emmett Till (1955)

While visiting relatives in Money, Mississippi during August 1955, 14-year-old Emmett Till was murdered at the hands of two white men. Till’s offense was flirting with a white woman, an act that violated the social codes that controlled contact between Black men and white women in the South. Till’s body was brutalized beyond recognition, and his mother, Mamie Till, was adamant that the world know what happened to her son. Till’s murder exposed the inhumanity of racism and helped ignite the Civil Rights Movement.

March on Washington (1963)

Photo: Gift of Samuel Y. Edgerton, Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.

The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was the largest demonstration the Nation’s Capital had ever seen and was organized by Bayard Rustin, an openly gay civil rights activist. The gathering of 250,000 people, all from diverse backgrounds, was the result of efforts put forth by Civil Rights leaders Roy Wilkins, Whitney Young, John Lewis, A. Philip Randolph, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., among others. The march highlighted the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation which reminded Americans of the nation’s long pursuit to fulfill its founding principles of liberty and equality for all. The March ended with Dr. Martin Luther King delivering his ‘I Have A Dream’ speech at the Lincoln Memorial.

Hurricane Katrina (2005)

In late August 2005, Hurricane Katrina struck the United States Gulf Coast, making landfall in Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. The impact of Hurricane Katrina was catastrophic. In New Orleans, failed levee systems gave way to an enormous quantity of water that flooded the city in a matter of hours. In total, Katrina claimed 2,000 lives and caused about $100 billion in damage. The devastation was captured on both national and international newscasts and many Americans believed that the federal government failed to meet the needs of the most vulnerable. Today, New Orleans and other communities are still rebuilding.

Barack Obama Accepts Nomination as Democratic Candidate for US President (2008)

Photo: Pinback button from the 2008 Obama campaign, Gift of M. Denise Dennis, Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.

On August 28, 2008, Illinois Senator Barack Obama accepted the Democratic nomination for President of the United States. Since he had announced his candidacy in February that year, Obama had run on a campaign of change and hope for a brighter tomorrow. By June, Obama had won enough votes to secure the Democratic party nomination—becoming the first African American major party candidate. On November 4th, Obama was elected president of the United States, a victory with profound meaning for African Americans.

Our Community Day commemorates these historic events, which all occurred on August 28th, and their impact on African American daily life.