Word, Shout, Song: Lorenzo Dow Turner Connecting Communities through Language

August 9, 2010 - March 27, 2011
Main Galleries
This exhibition documents the historical journey made by people from Africa to the Americas, along with their language and music. In the 1930s, Lorenzo Dow Turner discovered that the Gullah people of Georgia and South Carolina retained parts of the culture and language of their West African enslaved ancestors. Turner's research produced a living treasury of previously unknown traditions, songs, and folkways that also uncovered and illuminated the connections with West African and Afro-Brazilian communities. On view rare photographs, recordings, and artifacts collected by Turner from those Gullah communities in the United States, Brazil, and West Africa.

Separate and Unequaled: Black Baseball in the District of Columbia

November 10, 2008 - Indefinitely
Program Room
Please Note: Call first to check the monthly viewing schedule as the exhibition may not be available when an activity is taking place in the Program Room: 202-633-4820 (recording).

After a recent successful run at the Historical Society of Washington, D.C., a condensed version of this popular exhibition is on view at the museum. From Reconstruction to the second half of the 20th century, baseball, the great American pastime, was played in Washington, D.C., on segregated fields. This exhibition looks at the phenomenal popularity and community draw of this sport when played by African Americans. Featured are such personalities as Josh Gibson and "Buck" Leonard, star players of the Negro Leagues most celebrated team, the Washington Homestead Grays. The show also highlights community teams that gave rise to the various amateur, collegiate, and semi-pro black baseball teams and leagues.

See "Around the Mall" in the July 2008 Smithsonian magazine: p. 22.

Outdoor Sculpture: Real Justice by Allen Uzikee Nelson

- Permanent
Near front entrance
Real Justice, the museum's first public sculpture installed May, 26, 2004, was created by Washington metal sculptor Allen Uzikee Nelson. This 15-foot weathered iron sculpture is dedicated to the late Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and is reflective of African art, as Adinkra symbols are used to depict the justice system and aspects of Marshall's life.