It is hard to describe the emotions that take hold when visiting the newly opened National Museum of African American History and Culture. The museum itself is a testament to the amazing will and resilience of people of color in the face of daily opposition. The museum is a testament to telling our own stories. It is a testament to the complicated lives and stories of people of color that have long been written into history as two-dimensional sidekicks, if written about at all. As you descend the elevator in the museum, you watch through the glass wall as the years of history—1967, 1925, 1863, painted in black letters go down—all the way down to the 1400s.
The historical representation is vast.
The imagery is alternately inspiring and agonizing. For a race of people denied the right to celebrate our culture, speak our language and document even the birth of our children for years following emancipation—the imagery, photos, films, certificates—are proof that we were here. Like graffiti tags running through subway trains—that we created by the way—we created art from the mundane and the extraordinary. With that said, we spoke to Dr. Rhea Combs, a curator at the NMAAHC’s film and photography wing, about how she put together the exhibit and what the museum means to her.
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Okayplayer: Tell us about the NMAAHC exhibit, 100 Images from 100 Years, Dr. Combs?
Dr. Rhea Combs: Commercial photography really took a hold [of the public’s imagination] around 1840, but by the 1870s, [which was] several years after emancipation, there was still this perception about African Americans that was still very negative and denigrating. Post-emancipation African Americans have a chance and opportunity to create and craft images of themselves. They are basically challenging and countering this perception of African Americans as sub-human or whatever all these mainstream white perceptions of them were used essentially to justify and perpetuate the system of slavery and rationalize racism.
During this time, you find African Americans being completely invested in image in this new art form, saying [that] we can create our own image. I took that moment in the 1870s and charted it for 100 years to the 1970s—again a powerful moment after the turmoil of the ’60s—and tried to use that as a bookmark to determine the various ways in which black people have been creating images for themselves, by themselves, or about ourselves. That is the concept of the show.
OKP: What about the five themes that represent the exhibit: self-presentation, courtship and family, faith and activism, education and uplift, and work and play?
RC: In the 1830s, 1840s, 1850s, you would have African Americans and if they were being photographed, they were sitting with a white child or there was a white family and a black enslaved person next to them. We have pictures where there’s an African American woman looking directly at the camera with a straight gaze, nicely dressed. They’re challenging these perceptions, these perspectives that people have or had of the black presence. We were either invisible or not worthy of some kind of dignity or respect. The photos show that even in spite of those kind of perspectives that people have or had of the black presence. This was self-presentation. There was still a sense of agency, dignity and self-belief that many of us evoke and likely held within ourselves.
In a variety of earlier photographs, there were people looking directly into the camera or straight ahead or they are holding books. I suspect they are countering these ides of black people being perceived as illiterate or unable to learn. You have people dressed to the nines with fur coats on. It’s truly beautiful. In terms of faith and activism, well, throughout time African Americans have had to use faith and their ability to work with communities to be a part of the fight for the rights of their fellow human beings. There is a very harrowing, but beautiful picture of Mamie Till-Mobley, the mother of Emmett Till. It’s a rarely seen photograph. The picture was taken as they were lowering the casket. It looks like a Greek tragedy. You can see the tear coming from her eye. The photographer captured the grief and sadness of that moment.
I think that picture is poignant and it does speak to the power of photography being able to capture these kind of moments. The picture itself compositionally is beautiful and it is amazing because of the way the angle is shot—at a low angle, up toward the mother, grandmother and family members—you see the skyline in the back and the minister to the side. It is so riveting. That is the faith that she needed through this tragic moment. You see that through the picture. When it came to courtship and family, you think about the history of African Americans in this country and the family has been the bedrock of the way we have been able to sustain ourselves. It gives us strength and encouragement to move forward. If you’re looking at the history of black people through images, courtship is critical. [At the NMAAHC] there is this beautiful photograph of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with one of his children as a baby. He’s holding the baby and you’re in their home. This is not a picture you normally see associated with MLK. You normally see him out in the community, away from his family. Part of the every day beauty is being able to have these quiet reflective times with people we revere as spokespersons for our community.
For education and uplift, there have been people fighting for decades for us to have an education. There is this beautiful Carl Iwasaki photograph of the brown girls walking on the train tracks going to school, which is absolutely gorgeous. We have beautiful photographs from the Scurlock Collection. His name was Addison Scurlock and he was a wonderful photographer from the D.C. area. He was born in North Carolina and migrated to the D.C. area on U Street. He had one of the longest running photo studios in the country. His photo studio started here in 1911 and I think it closed its doors in the 1990s. His children ended up continuing the family business. He was the preeminent photographer for the burgeoning black middle class in the D.C. area just like James Van Der Zee was for New York. I have pictures of Charles “Teenie” Harris, another amazing photographer based out of Pittsburgh who worked for the Pittsburgh Courier. When you talk about community and the ability to revel in the every day person, Charles Teenie was prolific in capturing African American communities.
When it was all said and done, work and play was necessary. It was not just all struggle. There needs to be a time for levity, a time to smile and a time to laugh. In the midst of all this, the muck and mire, people still had the desire to be lighthearted. Lloyd Yearwood is an amazing photographer based out of New York who passed in the mid-1980s. I was struck by his work on the black Jewish community and the Muslim community. He was also Malcolm X‘s personal photographer. We have some works from him that he took around Harlem. The picture I have of Malcolm X in the NMAAHC exhibition is actually from Gordon Parks. It is a beautiful stolen moment on a plane. Gordon Parks stuck the camera between the seats and Malcolm is either praying or resting his eyes. He is holding a newspaper talking about the police killing a black man.
Frank Dandridge is another great photographer in the exhibition. He has photos of Sammy Davis, Jr. and one of his early wives. Dandridge was a civil rights photographer and ended up doing a lot of work for Life Magazine.
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