Category: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Sunday, July 31, 2022
The National Civil Rights Museum mourns the passing of 2011 Freedom Award honoree and sports pioneer, William Felton Russell. Following baseball legend Jackie Robinson’s example, Bill Russell believed it was his responsibility as a celebrity to use his platform to stand up for positive social change.
Bill Russell was an outspoken advocate for civil rights. He was one of the first celebrities to proudly call himself “Black,” when “Negro" was still the accepted...
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at Sunday, July 31, 2022
Monday, October 18, 2021
The National Civil Rights Museum expresses deep sorrow in the passing of 1997 Freedom Award honoree, Secretary Colin L. Powell.
Secretary Powell was appointed by President George W. Bush as the 65th Secretary of State in 2000, becoming the first African American Secretary of State in the U.S. Powell was a professional soldier for 35 years, during which time he held a myriad of command and staff positions and rose to the rank of four-star general. His last assignment, from...
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at Monday, October 18, 2021
Thursday, July 1, 2021
The National Civil Rights Museum has named Dr. Russell Wigginton as the museum’s next president. Wigginton will begin his new position on August 1. He brings 29 years of experience in education, philanthropy, executive management and program development, as well as strategic planning and partnership building.
Museum Board Chairman Herb Hilliard stated, “We are fortunate to be able to attract someone of Russ’s background and experience to serve as our next President....
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at Thursday, July 1, 2021
Tuesday, April 20, 2021
The verdict is in. Derek Chavin is guilty on all counts.
What does this mean? Justice was served in this case. Justice prevailed. But the justice we need is bigger than the verdict of this one case. Hopefully, this case will set a precedent for the verdicts to come for the many other victims of unjust police killings. We thank the jury for bravely doing the right thing. Our heart is with George Floyd’s family who has endured the devastation of his death.
In too many instances,...
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at Tuesday, April 20, 2021
Wednesday, January 27, 2021
By Herb Hilliard
Chair, Museum Board of Directors
Terri Lee Freeman answered the call to lead the National Civil Rights Museum in November 2014. She arrived just a few months after the museum’s most expansive renovation. She came to the museum understanding the huge investment and brought with her a new perspective on what the museum could represent in not only telling the story of the civil rights movement, but extending the story through the museum’s outreach and...
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at Wednesday, January 27, 2021
Thursday, January 7, 2021
Museum Statement Regarding the Insurrection at Capitol Hill on January 6, 2021
Dr. King once said, “We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence.”
Words matter. Leadership matters.
The siege on Capitol Hill yesterday during the joint Congress’ ratification of the presidential election should be condemned, not coddled. What the world witnessed yesterday was not a protest, but a riotous mob and an insurrection. We need to call...
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at Thursday, January 7, 2021
I write this letter today because I am both exhausted and frustrated. I can only imagine what Dr. King was feeling when he wrote his Letter from a Birmingham Jail. I'm angry at a nation that I love but doesn’t seem to love me back. Recently, we got a first-hand look at the two justice systems that exist in our America – one for Blacks and one for Whites.
Kenosha, Wisconsin, a city with a Black population of 11.46%, was the site of a recent police shooting of a Black man....
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As he approached the podium, Bayard Rustin was determined and elated. He expected about 100,000 marchers to converge at the Washington Monument on August 28, 1963. To his delight, approximately 250,000 people cheered as he listed the demands of the march. The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom began after eight weeks of recruiting marchers, coordinating buses and marshals, scheduling speakers, and managing logistics. Despite Rustin’s critical role as the march’s chief...
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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....
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Wednesday, May 20, 2020
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...
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at Wednesday, May 20, 2020