Much of our national memory of the civil rights movement is embodied by male figureheads whose visibility in boycotts, legal proceedings, and mass demonstrations dominated newspaper and television coverage in the 1950s and ’60s. Missing from that picture is a group of extraordinary women who, while less prominent in the media, shaped much of the spirit and substance of civil rights in America, just as their mothers and grandmothers had done for decades.
Freedom’s Sisters, a collaboration between the Cincinnati Museum Center and the Smithsonian Institution , brings to life 20 African American women, from key 19th-century historical figures to contemporary leaders, who have fought for equality for all Americans. The exhibition is introduced by a video and electronic projections of strong artistic images that will seize visitors’ emotions. Organized around the themes of “Dare to Dream,” “Inspire Lives,” “Serve the Public,” and “Look to the Future,” graphically striking interactive stations tell the stories of Harriet Tubman, Mary McLeod Bethune, Septima Poinsette Clark, Fannie Lou Hamer, Dorothy Height, Coretta Scott King, Rosa Parks, and 13 other women leaders.
Baltimore’s Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History is scheduled to be the last city of a nationwide tour that began in 2008. For more information about the exhibit, events and museum times, visit the museum’s official website at www.africanamericanculture.org or call 443-263-1800.
