International African American Museum in Charleston, S.C., pays new respect to the enslaved Africans who landed on its docks
Retrieved on:
Monday, July 17, 2023
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Key Points:
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Before Congress ended the transatlantic slave trade in 1808, the Port of Charleston was the nation’s epicenter of human trafficking. - That location of once utter degradation is now the hallowed site of the International African American Museum.
- The museum’s mission is to honor the untold stories of the African American journey and, by virtue of its location and landscape design, pay reverence to the ground on which it sits.
America’s widespread historical illiteracy
- In the 2022 “Nation’s Report Card,” the National Assessment of Educational Progress revealed ongoing deficiencies in eighth
grade students’ knowledge of U.S. history and civics. - Only 20% of test-takers scored proficient or above in civics, and, for American history, only 13% achieved proficiency.
- In this highly politicized environment, efforts to restrict how race can be discussed in public schools have led to widespread calls from parents and politicians for the censorship of certain books on race.
- These new restrictions have had an impact on public education, according to the National Council for History Education.
South Carolinians’ overlooked national impact
- Exhibits show how the lives of Black people and their resistance to enslavement helped shape state, national and international affairs.
- For example, South Carolina’s 1739 Stono Rebellion, in which fugitive slaves attempted to escape to Spanish Florida, precipitated conflict between Spain and Great Britain.
- But few know that Shields Green, a South Carolina fugitive slave, assisted in the planning and execution of the fateful attack.
A monument to freedom
- In my view, that collaboration will likely be challenging, given the efforts to sanitize the nation’s racial history and teachers’ apprehensions about teaching supposedly controversial subjects.
- “This is a site of trauma,” Tonya Matthews, CEO and president of the museum, told CBS News.
- That’s what makes it a site of joy, and triumph.” Indeed, the International African American museum is, by design, a monument to freedom – and an honest engagement with America’s troubled racial past.