by Kimberly Dawson, producer
The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture is the latest addition to our country’s rhetorical wealth. Although it’s not officially open, founding director and lead curator for its exhibition ” Changing America: The Emancipation Proclamation, 1863 to the March on Washington, 1963” Lonnie Bunch III wants its visitors to see America’s racial past from myriad African American perspectives. He talks to us about the museums artifacts; the pieces that tell American history from the posthumous voices of slaves, to the “say-it-loud” black nationalist politics of the 70’s. Abolitionist papers, original “colored” water fountains and much more are on display at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.
Deeply Rooted:Commemorating the Civil Rights Movement continues with African American literary critic and feminist scholar Hortense Spillers. Spillers is a professor at Vanderbilt University, co-founder of Feminist Wire magazine, and a scholar of African diaspora studies. Her theoretical work is widely used in the academy, along with her contemporaries Angela Davis and bell hooks. Spillers talks to Bob about coming-of-age in the civil rights era and explains how African American culture has evolved since the emancipation proclamation.