There's a new exhibition opening soon at the Wisconsin Black Historical Society in Milwaukee called "An American Inheritance: The Story of Racist Memorabilia in Wisconsin and the U.S."
Its goal is not to sensationalize racist artifacts, but to provide historical context. It also examines how racist imagery was created to dehumanize African Americans.
It's a collaboration between the Wisconsin Black Historical Society Museum and America’s Black Holocaust Museum.
The Black Historical Society's Jamila Benson says the exhibit will describe what the artifacts look like.
"How they've been depicted in saltshakers, pictures and ads, and rice, you know, food. Everything you can think, of we are going to have on display," Benson says. "We want to make sure that you don't just see 'oh he's got black face' or 'he's got an exaggerated face,' but explaining what that meant and what this ad actually was saying. So, it's really broken down so that I can get younger kids to understand that this is something beyond a caricature —this is hate."
Benson explains why the exhibit is especially timely: "People have been really seeking help and seeking explanation for certain things, and also people have taken certain liberties that are not exactly fair."
She thinks that's due to lack of knowledge.
"[People] have heard things that they don't get researched and they don't understand, and because you don't understand, you decide to take a stance in the wrong direction; well, in my opinion the wrong direction," says Benson.
Benson says the story of African Americans in Wisconsin mirrors the story of Irish Americans in Wisconsin: seeking a better place.
"To have understanding with each other and amongst each other...is what we want. There has been a systematic way of making sure we don't have understanding, because if we don't have the power to voice who we are, then other people will voice it for us," she says. "And that's what's been done, and we want to bridge a gap with people."
Brad Pruitt with the Black Holocaust Museum adds that the exhibit also has special significance because it's coming about when while people are having a national dialogue about racist memorabilia, what it means today, and what should be done with the objects.
"Both the Historical Society Museum and America's Black Holocaust Museum have had multiple people want to share their collections," Pruitt says. "There are folks who are uncomfortable with continuing to own these pieces, but at the same time don't want to discard them, and so they've been intentional about sharing them with us."
"At the core of both of our institutions is to share our collective American history and help those understand how the social structure, how the legislative practices — from the time that we set foot on the soil, to today — have affected every era: from slavery, to reconstruction, to Jim Crow, to now, and how the representation in memorabilia, in film and television and print did not only affect and inform all of those eras, but affected and informed the era that we're in now," Pruitt says.
Pruitt says the goal is to create space where people explore this challenging history and better understand our connections.
The exhibit will be on display at the Wisconsin Black Historical Society Museum, with an expected opening date in late September, until Dec. 31. It will move to America’s Black Holocaust Museum after that.
