About Buckhead reporter. (Sandy Springs, GA) 2007-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 2, 2020)
FEBRUARY 2020 ■ www.ReporterNewspapers.net Art & Entertainment | 31 tests before casting a ballot. At the same time, the Ku Klux Klan reestablished itself and numerous black people were lynched across the country. But it was also a time when African Americans shined, particularly in Atlanta and Georgia, Lee said. Tunis Campbell, Aaron Bradley and Henry McNeal Turner were elected to the Georgia Legislature in 1868, only to be ex pelled by the white majority. WE.B. Du Bois helped form the Atlanta University Center in the West End, the largest consortium of historic black colleges and universities in the nation. And interracial neighborhood unions begin meeting, their pictures fea tured in the Atlanta newspaper. “This exhibit speaks the lie that black southerners were not deeply and fully and creatively engaged in a fight for their full participation in American democracy as citizens,” Lee said. “It’s a disservice and I, increasing ly think, slander to black southerners to suggest they were complacent in the face of their marginalization,” she said. “They built schools, engaged in education with each other, and created communities to serve their needs that were entirely ne glected by the state and municipalities.” African Americans also filed lawsuits to fight the discriminatory laws and dis rupt white supremacy, Lee said. Journalist Ida B. Wells investigated lynchings and dis covered many black men were hanged be cause white men envied what little pros perity they achieved in business, Lee said. “So many people took incredible risks,” Lee said. “If people don’t take anything else away from this [exhibit], let a word never be spo ken by anybody of any color ... that sug gests these incredible black southerners were not deeply courageous and focused and tenacious in accessing their full hu man rights and dignity.” The Atlanta History Center exhibit’s timeframe closes as World War I is begin ning in 1914. Black men fought in the Civ il War and continued to enlist and fight in World War I for a country that rejected them, Lee said. “One of the ways African Americans struggled to prove their fitness and patrio tism for full participation in American de mocracy was choosing to become soldiers, to fight in war... in the face of a nation that fundamentally characterized them as less than human,” she said. The African American struggles and successes after the Civil War to be recog nized as human beings goes to the core of exhibit’s message, Lee said. MORE INFO Black Citizenship in the Age of Jim Crow Through June 30 Atlanta History Center 130 West Paces Ferry Road Atlantahistorycenter.com “In many ways, this exhibit is about showing African American agency in the face of that,” she said. “Jim Crow was a sig nificant challenge to that expression... but this exhibit focuses on the realities of peo ple who continued again and again to push for full inclusion in the American experi ence.” Complete and unfettered access to American citizenship is what they strived for, but that still has not been achieved. For example, there is still voter suppres sion that is aligned with race, Lee said. But black southerners experienced success and paved a path for future struggles that con tinue today. “Laws that amplify and reinforce racial disparities still exist,” Lee said. “This exhib it reminds us that until the race is won, it is worthwhile and necessary to keep rais ing your voice.” ATLANTA JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL FEBRUARY 10-27 YEARS F STORYTELLING GET TICKETS NOW #AJFF2020 MORE INFO AT AJFF.ORG AJC American Jewish Committee Founder & Partner BH
