African-Americans

By David Smith for the Guardian. From Harriet Tubman’s hymn book to a slave cabin from South Carolina, from Muhammed Ali’s boxing gloves to Carl Lewis’s gold medals, from a metal bucket used to bathe the feet of Martin Luther King to tiny shoes worn by Sammy Davis Jr as a child dancer, the museum is a tour de force of more than 3,000 artifacts with a mission statement to “tell the unvarnished truth”. Emotions run high in the slavery and freedom gallery, located underground, and there will be signs advising parents on whether the material is suitable for children. “What’s been the important thing to me, or one of the most moving things, is seeing the journalists walk through and on their personal level you can see their faces go, ‘OK, wow!’,” said Elliott. “That’s been really exciting to see. To remove that veil and see the person who actually is looking at it.” For Elliott, one of the most powerful objects is an auction block, “a site of fear, humiliation and uncertainty” where slaves were bought and sold and separated from their loved ones for life. In a nearby display case is a whip used to punish slaves.