Reframing African American Controversy

“We are powerful because we have survived.” (Audre Lorde)

As a former history teacher, I always taught my students about the historic tragedy of the African American slavery experience in my country. For I felt obligated then to tell the truth of this racial travesty in spite of my school administrators who instructed me to avoid teaching this controversial subject in those  majority black Miami schools. So I’m not a bit surprised with those Republican political leaders like Florida’s governor De Santis  today who would like to sanitize such racial talk from our schools by fomenting misuse of the “WOKE” ideology. But they seem to be missing the point that it’s important to lay these facts out as they truthfully happened with hope that new generations will learn to never allow such egregious racial injustice to surface again.

So my road trip visit to Richmond, Virginia this week would offer me an opportune time to to study two exhibitions at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts that would reveal a more optimistic tone about black racial progress in America. For both of these collections showcased an extraordinary array of evidence about the sheer willpower and energetic effort of African Americans to rise up from feeling victimized by slavery’s oppressive past and thereupon lead their everyday lives successfully. .

Know then that during my Tuesday tour of the first exhibit, I observed how Professor Benjamin Wigfall, a Richmond, Virginia native, successfully created a gathering place called “Communication Village” in New York City where the act of creative artwork protest could enlighten the oppressed mindset of the surrounding black community. Moving on to New York City Bronx artist Whitfield Lovell’s “Passages” display that morning, I witnessed an exciting multi-sensory display revealing the arduous journeys of African Americans to free themselves from blatant racist wrath throughout many time generations in the American South and strive to better their own lives as American citizens elsewhere.

For your interest then, witness for yourselves some photos from my visit that capture such interesting viewpoints of the African American experience in American History. Most definitely, we need to spend more time to view the extensive artwork collection of this museum from around the world when we pass through the Richmond area on future east coast road trips.