America I Am Celebrates African American Culture

Went over to the history museum today in Forrest Park to check out the America I Am exhibit that is showing there until September fifth. It's a traveling exhibit on African American culture focusing on the imprints that African Americans have made on the United States since the beginning of European colonization of North America. It's a fairly large collection of artifacts, and personal stories which aims at the mighty task of exploring the ways in which African Americans have shaped the culture, politics, and economy of this country.

The exhibit is broken into two wings at the museum in STL. The first half focuses on the history from just before the arrival of Europeans to North America and continues on through the Civil War and the passing of the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments. This first room is organized chronologically giving a strong sense of history's progression and when and how African Americans made significant and lasting contributions to United States history. The second room I felt lost it's effectiveness by having sections organized thematically instead of chronologically.

An example of this is the room on African American participation in the US military. Five cases with uniforms are in this room, the oldest being a Buffalo soldier uniform from immediately after the Civil War and the newest a NASA flight suit. While the artifacts and history in this room are no doubt interesting, they lose their connection to a particular historical moment which is what gave the collections in the first room much of their power.

Music also gets the short shrift in this exhibit and is merely presented through various outfits that have been worn by a number of African American performers. Again, while interesting, the exhibit spends little to no time describing the evolution of music from its African roots meeting with European influences and Caribbean influences to shape almost all forms of popular music today.

A few pieces that I feel are especially worth seeing are Frederick Douglass's shirt and coat, Malcolm X's handwritten spiral notebook from his Hajj, and the early African statues and carvings that open the exhibit. While those familiar with African American history won't necessarily learn anything new from this exhibition, it is a powerful celebration of African American culture and contributions which is a steal for the meager $8 admission price.