Probably most helpful original source in understanding long history of what’s going on...👇🏽
thought I knew something... but some time at DC’s National Museum of African American History opened in President Obama’s last weeks in office taught me a lot
nmaahc.si.edu
thought I knew something... but some time at DC’s National Museum of African American History opened in President Obama’s last weeks in office taught me a lot
nmaahc.si.edu
It is, by the way, the most incredible museum I’ve ever been to - journey of the entire African American experience from slavery to the Presidency, via Rosa Parks and the Sugarhill Gang - so here are some pics of things there that I never knew about...
1. Slave trade - 90% of sugar was produced by enslaved Africans, with 7 year life expectancy and 30% mortality rate... how they were transported on British slave boat Brookes.. centrality of Royal African company saw slaves branded with initials “DY” for Duke of York 
2. Blew my mind I didn’t know this - Thomas Jefferson enslaved his own children ... contradictions that made their way into Declaration of Independence, where a passage condemning King George’s determination to “keep open a market where men should be bought and sold” was deleted
3. How different types of discriminatory law were passed in States and tested in Supreme Court - and the segregation signs for trains...
4. More on transport segregation & Voting rights act 55 years ago following Selma, finally outlaws all the various backdoor efforts to stop African Americans voting
Clearly to the credit of the US that such self reflection possible, many other nations would never. so thought I’d share this as nobody from the UK will be visiting this museum imminently... tho perhaps the Liverpool Slavery museum worth a visit.
