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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
