News | National Civil Rights Museum - May 2020

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There’s plenty of history in the making here at the National Civil Rights Museum.

Thursday, May 28, 2020

The Very Real Pain of Racism

By Terri Lee Freeman, Museum President I have always looked at the glass as half full as opposed to empty.  But even so, I consider myself more of a pragmatist than an optimist.  As an African American woman, I’ve experienced how ugly the world can be.  I’ve experienced both blatant and more insidious racism.  I’ve been called a nigger. I’ve been assumed to be the assistant to my white CFO when, in fact, I was the CEO.  I’ve watched whit... Read More
at Thursday, May 28, 2020
2nd Amendment Ahmaud Arbery Amy Cooper Christian Cooper discrimination Emmett Till equality Eric Garner freedom George Floyd National Civil Rights Museum oppression racism Trayvon Martin

Black America Gets Pneumonia

From Black Enterprise, May 24, 2020 by Terri Lee Freeman Just as 9/11 defined the new millennium, the novel coronavirus will certainly be the story of the decade.  The global pandemic has caused a devastating public health crisis, initiated a global economic disaster, and in the United States, pulled back the curtain on the deep-rooted racial inequities that persist. Just as COVID-19 is a deadly virus, so is the disease of racism, particularly systemic racism. We now have ... Read More
Coronavirus COVID-19 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. essential workers inequities National Civil Rights Museum pandemic poverty racism

Wednesday, May 20, 2020

Unsung Freedom Riders, Part II

Over the summer of 1961, 329 people from across the country, both black and white, boarded buses and headed south. The Freedom Rides set out to test federal law banning segregation in bus and train terminals across the South. After facing violence in Alabama, Jackson, Mississippi became the end of the line. From May to September, activists flooded into town. They came by bus and by airplane. Each in turn was arrested and photographed. The notorious Mississippi State Penitentiary, known loc... Read More
at Wednesday, May 20, 2020
Black Power Movement Civil Rights Movement Freedom Riders Joan Trumpauer Mulholland John Lewis Mississippi Civil Rights Project Parchman Prison SNCC Stokely Carmichael

Wednesday, May 20, 2020

Gradual Matriculation: Brown vs. Board of Education

White columns guide you when entering the Brown vs Board of Education exhibition. On the right are pews and a short video recapping the world-changing U.S. Supreme Court decision on May 17, 1954, 66 years ago this week.  For 89 years, schools across the South were racially segregated and drastically different. Despite a court order stating “separate but equal” facilities were constitutional, inequity ran rampant in southern schools. The NAACP successfully argued that under t... Read More
at Wednesday, May 20, 2020
Brown v. Board Central High School Civil Rights Movement desegregation Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Ernest Green Little Rock Nine Melba Patillo Beals Minnijean Brown

Thursday, May 14, 2020

We Were Prepared to Die: Freedom Riders

Fifty-nine years ago, the Freedom Rides of 1961 entered the state of Alabama. Potential violence awaited in Anniston and Birmingham. Below, the backstory of how the Freedom Rides began and how one of the most pivotal protests in the Civil Rights Movement came about. While we know the names of notable activists like James Lawson and Diane Nash, there are numerous overlooked details behind the scenes of this epic event. The Freedom Riders story began fifteen years earlier in 1946 when Irene ... Read More
at Thursday, May 14, 2020
Bull Connor civil rights Diane Nash Freedom Riders J Edgar Hoover James Lawson Joan Trumpauer Mulholland John Lewis National Civil Rights Museum Parchman Prison Robert F Kennedy Ross Barnett Wyatt Tee Walker

Thursday, May 7, 2020

The Children Shall Lead Them: Birmingham 1963

As you move through the galleries of the National Civil Rights Museum, you follow a timeline of struggle and strength. The sounds of freedom songs trail behind you as you step into Birmingham, Alabama – a town that became known as “Bombingham” and the center of the Civil Rights Movement. On a busy day, you might notice a life-size image of a young girl holding a sign: “Can a man love God and hate his brother?”  Your attention might be drawn to the replica j... Read More
at Thursday, May 7, 2020
16th Street Baptist Church Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights Birmingham Bull Connor Children's Crusade Children's March Civil Rights Movement Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. NAACP

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