Freedom’s Sisters: Museum Exhibits and the Memory of the Civil Rights Movement: A Review Essay and Commentary

I f I » 3:] 4 / 11 i T 1 4 h /. 1 f I fl 1j f 1r 3 t r C. 44% #'.: I ". P I. 5t 35 21> 04 9 OP T 2 A* I . *. p '.* 5,$ 3% I=, 0 fl A :.. jl ... » d &' T 119335 , . 1. 1 Ii. ' N]1lj '11111 il mnfimvmrtttoji' , , icrliti 110 , Freedom's Sisters introductory panel shows a civil rights march in Orangeburg, South Carolina, In the 1960s Panels light up in sequence from rightto left,inviting visitors into the exhibit CECIL WILLIAMS PHOTOGRAPHER Freedom' s Sisters" Museum Exhibits and the Memory of the Ciuil Rights Movement: A Review Essay and Commentary Tracy E. K' Meyer A s visitors enter Freedom' s Sisters, a traveling exhibit on display at the Cincinnati History Museum through September 2008, they encounter a welcome video that employs evocative civil rights movement music and testimony from children to encourage them to consider the ordinary women, including their own mothers and grandmothers, who have done extraordinary things to bring about freedomand indeed to consider how they might be a hero too ' Ihis new installation spotlights the lives and contributions of twenty African American women who struggled 68 OHIO VALLEY HISTORY TRACY E. K' MEYER SUMMER 2008 against racism and for equality for people of color from the time of slavery through the present. As the introduction makes clear,the goal of the exhibit is to celebrate and honor these women, but : ilso to inspire visitors. ' Ihe many appealing features of the display will engage the audience, broaden their · appreciation of the struggle, and provoke dialogue in Cincinnati and in other communities to which it will travel. ' Ilic exhibit also, however, r·aises questions about how we remember the civil rights movement atid what museums might do to complicate the story,challenge their audience, and yet still encourage their visitors to be heroes in their own way. Freedom' s Sisters was created b' the Cincinnati Museum Center as the " first and most comprehensive traveling exhibit on women in the Civil Rights movement." 1 Acknowledging th·at for most of the public,the history of the movement is the story of prominent men such as Martin Luther King or Malcolm X who dominated contemporary news coverage of the events of the 19505 and 19605,the creators of this exhibit set out to expand the story to include the women who worked alongside these wellknown le, iders. ' Ihe exhibit consists of a series of kiosks with panels about each woman,describing her key contributions to the freedom struggle and providing quotes from her that convey her ideas. On the larger displays accoiip,inving text provides contextual information. For example, a description of nonviolence accompanies Fannie Lou Himer' s story while a discussion of the problem of lynching frames Ida B. Wells's bioeraphy. In addition, some of the panels include interactive elements such as touchscreen monitors with images and text for Harriet Tubman and Charlayne HunterGault and sound recordings of speeches by Fannie Lou Hamer and Barbara Jordan. The most extensive displays are a recreated bus and a video accompanying the panel about Ros· a Parks and a kiosk with information about Highlander Folk School that contextualizes Septima Clark' s literacy campaigns . In the corner of the gdkry there is a case ofbooks and materials about the women represented in the exhibit and an opportunity for visitors to make a photograph to include in a takehome book. Freedom' s Sisters" is attractively laid out,with lighting and sound that create a Freedom' s Sisters is an exhibition created by Cincinnati Museum Center,organized for travel by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service and made possible through the generous support of Ford Motor Company Fund. E. Selean Holmes, Curator and Consultant. Freedom's Sisters supports educational and community outreach components to facilitate engagement with local audiences,featuring local committees of honor and a model, standardsbased curriculum about local women in the civil rights movement. The exhibition will tour eight selected cities including Detroit, Birmingham, Chicago, Dallas, Sacramento, and Memphis after opening at Cincinnati Museum Center in March 2008. 69 FREEDOM' S SISTERS" meditative environment and encourage the visitor to linger over the panels. In particular...