The National Civil Rights Museum is among 10 institutions the Institute of Museum and Library Services announced today as recipients of the 2019 National Medal for Museum and Library Services, the nation’s highest honor given to libraries and museums that make significant and exceptional contributions to their communities. Over the past 25 years, the award has […]
Category: Historical Feature
Go deep on the people, events, and turning points that shaped the civil rights movement, and connect them to the issues communities face now. Museum historians and staff examine figures like Emmett Till, Frederick Douglass, and the Freedom Riders, alongside present-day questions from police violence to the fight for LGBTQIA+ rights. Every piece ties documented history to why it still matters.
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 […]
Museum Mourns the Passing of Freedom Award Honoree Frank Robinson
We are saddened by the passing of baseball icon Frank Robinson, a Hall of Famer, two-time MVP, and MLB’s first African-American manager. He was honored by the National Civil Rights Museum with the Freedom Award Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014. His contributions to civil rights and baseball were many, including the integration of black players […]
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, […]
How are the Children?
I often think of a customary greeting in some African countries, ‘How are the Children?” The response is generally, “The children are well.” The question is asked because child well-being is a good measure of community well-being. Regrettably, we cannot provide that response. By all measures the children are not at all well. The policy […]
The Importance of #GivingTuesday
For me, the month of November is always a bit nostalgic. It’s hard to think about Thanksgiving and not think about the many Thanksgivings that helped create the traditions our family now holds so dear. The idea that on the fourth Thursday in November we would spend a day with family and friends, savoring traditional […]
TWENTYSEVENTEEN
By Terri Lee Freeman, Museum President 2017 has arrived. How I wish I could list the incredible accomplishments that took place in 2016 to provide equitable access to opportunity, move justice forward, and ensure freedom. But frankly, I honestly believe 2016 was one of the most challenging years we’ve experienced in quite some time. Global […]
Three Lessons from the Election
By Terri Lee Freeman, Museum President Like Everyone in America, I have spent time reflecting on the election. Not just Tuesday, November 8, but the 18 months leading up to Election Day. Three elements of this election have stood out and provide us with an agenda for the future. We have the privilege and […]
Wake Up America!
By Terri Lee Freeman Museum President Something is drastically wrong in America. It was earlier this summer when we thought we had seen the worst of the assaults on African-American men by police and the justice system. But, in the words of Yogi Berra, “it’s deja vu all over again.” Yesterday morning, September 20, we […]
#StolenLives ? More shootings? What’s going on?
Commentary by Terri Lee Freeman President, National Civil Rights Museum Three mornings this week we’ve awakened to news of horrific violence. Three incidents. Seven people dead. Two dead from police violence. Five dead from retaliation. 36 hours. Senseless. My heart grieves for every family that has suddenly lost a loved one. My heart grieves for […]
A Humanitarian, A Gentle-Man
Commentary by Terri Lee Freeman President, National Civil Rights Museum On Saturday, July 2, 2016, the world lost a survivor, an advocate, a teller of truth, and a believer that ALL human life has merit and purpose. Elie Wiesel was a Holocaust survivor, an author and a Freedom Award recipient in 1995. He worked […]
Love Can Save Us
By Terri Lee Freeman Museum President The Sunday morning news account of the horrific and tragic slaughter that occurred at the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Florida was particularly disturbing to me. For one thing, it brought back memories of two tragic events that I worked through in Washington, DC – September 11th at the […]