As president and CEO of a civil rights organization, my daily mantra is: “I’ve got to keep it moving.” The African-American community has too many dragons left to slay to rest on our laurels. But a new exhibit at The Field Museum gives r
As president and CEO of a civil rights organization, my daily mantra is: “I’ve got to keep it moving.” The African-American community has too many dragons left to slay to rest on our laurels. But a new exhibit at The Field Museum gives reason for pause.
"The Road to Freedom – Photographs from the Civil Rights Movement 1956-1968" vividly portrays, in black and white, the trials and tribulations Black people endured for standing up in nonviolent fashion and saying, “Separate is unequal,” “I am a man” and “We shall overcome.” The exhibit is not just a stark reminder of our pain and struggle, but in fact, a reminder that we are a nation of “overcomers.”
On Monday, we previewed the exhibit for a few special guests, and in the midst of looking back, we got a stark reminder of how far we have come. President Barack Obama was addressing the nation’s largest doctors’ organization just a short stroll from the Field Museum. It was the kind of full circle moment that couldn’t have been more profound if it had been planned that way.
The Chicago Urban League brought the exhibit to the Field Museum in partnership with the High Museum of Art in Atlanta and with the generous support of Target as the presenting sponsor and BP and Boeing as executive sponsors. If you decide to check it out, you may recall some of the images on display, such as Rosa Parks staring out the window of a near empty bus; of Dr. King and his wife, Coretta, arms locked with civil rights marchers; and of hoses being turned on nonviolent protesters in Birmingham. But I bet there a lot of the photos you have never seen, such as one of the young Rev. Jesse Jackson reading a magazine article about Dr. King’s assassination, his face scared with grief.
The photographs exposed the brutality and mistreatment of Blacks in America. They lay bear a very ugly side of humanity and of America but also portray a steely determination to overcome injustice. When President John F. Kennedy saw the photos of Blacks being hosed down by the Birmingham police, he was spurred into action, action that eventually led to the Voting Rights Act of 1964 under President Lyndon Johnson.
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