News | National Civil Rights Museum - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Dear White People

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.... Read More

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Bayard Rustin: Strategist, Organizer, Unifier

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... Read More

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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.... Read More

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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... Read More

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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... Read More

at Thursday, May 7, 2020

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VOTER SUPPRESSION IS VOTER SUPPRESSION

Voter Suppression IS Voter Suppression By Terri Lee Freeman, National Civil Rights Museum President Lyndon Baines Johnson signed into law the Voting Rights Acts of 1965 with the intent of eliminating the legal barriers imposed at the state and local levels to prevent African Americans from exercising their legal right to vote as stated in the 15th Amendment. That amendment was ratified in 1870 and it guaranteed voting rights to all men regardless of race. It’s... Read More

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Monday, November 5, 2018

Let’s stop tearing down community and build something we can all be proud of

By Terri Lee Freeman In early October the National Civil Rights Museum, along with Bridges and Facing History and Ourselves, launched a campaign to encourage empathy. Our Open Up. Spark a Connection. campaign was created to get people to do just what it says, open up ! In the face of our national discourse, or possibly the lack thereof, being empathetic and recognizing the “others” as ourselves couldn’t be more important. ... Read More

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Wednesday, May 9, 2018

Thank You!

By Terri Lee Freeman Museum President A little over a month ago, we were singularly focused on MLK50. Not just the commemoration itself, but for the National Civil Rights Museum, each individual event. We worked to ensure that people were where they needed to be, that programs were rich in content and scope, that the speakers, panelists, civil rights icons and new movement makers were in place to share their stories and perspectives, that the logistics, technology, broadcasts... Read More

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Category: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.