The Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration
One of BAIA Foundation’s 2022 initiatives is instituting marketing assistance for African American Museums and Cultural Centers.
While in prison, a guard approached Assata Shakur and told her to snap some stringbeans. Assata said that she wasn’t a slave and wouldn’t work for free. “Don’t you know that slavery was outlawed?” she scoffed.
“No,” the guard said, “you’re wrong. Slavery was outlawed with the exception of prisons. Slavery is legal in prisons.”
The guard was right. The Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, the one we were led to believe ended slavery, still reads to this day that:
Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
Back then, Black people weren’t considered human beings, which justified slavery. Today, the criminal label justifies slavery. The name changes, but the system remains intact. Unless someone is vocal about the problem, then it’ll live on uninterrupted. Growing, even. The Legacy Museum exists to not only shed light on the issue but to eradicate it as well.
The Legacy Museum was founded in 2018 by the Equal Justice Initiative, a nonprofit organization on a mission to challenge racial and economic injustices and end mass incarceration and excessive punishment in this country. “EJI is dedicated to helping the poor, the incarcerated, and the condemned. We provide legal assistance to innocent death row prisoners, confront abuse of the incarcerated and the mentally ill, and aid children prosecuted as adults.”
The Legacy Museum is a visual presentation of research and artifacts EJI has gathered over the years, including data collected by Ida B. Wells. It’s a place to visit to come face-to-face with the hard truths of what our people endured and continue to endure. One of ou t-shirts here at Black Art in America reads that we were established in 1619. That year represents when the first enslaved African arrived in this country, which is the starting point at the museum.
“From the Transatlantic Slave Trade and its impact on the North and coastal communities across America through the Domestic Slave Trade and Reconstruction, the museum provides detailed interactive content and compelling narratives. Lynching, codified racial segregation, and the emergence of over-incarceration in the 20th century are examined in depth and brought to life through film, images, and first-person narratives.”
Not only does the building hold history, but the land that it sits on does too. The museum is situated where our enslaved ancestors were forced to work. It’s blocks away from one of the most active slave auction site in the country and mere steps away from the rail station where tens of thousands of enslaved Black people were trafficked. And you feel that energy when you’re there.
“The Legacy Museum includes a world-class art gallery with major works from the most celebrated Black artists in the country, including Glenn Ligon, Elizabeth Catlett, Alison Saar, Gordon Parks, Jacob Lawrence, Faith Ringgold, Deborah Roberts, Nelson Makamo, Carrie Mae Weems, Whitfield Lovell, Kwame Akoto-Bamfo, Sandrine Plante, Paul Briggs, Titus Kaphar, Romare Bearden, John Biggers, Dawn Williams Boyd, Kay Brown, Yvonne Cole, Simone Leigh, and the extraordinary vernacular artist Winfred Rembert.
The gallery includes pieces created specifically for the Legacy Museum, and its entire collection is curated in dialogue with the museum’s historical narrative. Collaborations with Wynton Marsalis, Jon Booz, Lil Buck, The Aeolians, Chrystal Rucker, and Brandie Sutton explore the role of music and dance in understanding our nation’s history and the role of the arts.”
Be sure to add The Legacy Museum to your places to see. And for more information, check out their website: https://museumandmemorial.eji.org/museum
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