Redemption

Explore Our Online Exhibits

Joshua Glover Plaque
Some Exhibits to Come – Three Centuries Of Enslavement
Harriet Tubman, "The Conductor," with fugitive slaves in Underground Railroad station
Bibliography – Three Centuries of Enslavement
Slave Auction Poster
A 1859 Slave Auction in Savannah, as Reported by the New York Tribune
slaves in cotton field
How Slavery Became the Law of the Land “For Blacks Only”
FredDouglass w:firewks
Frederick Douglass: “The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro”
The Scourged Back: This slave named Gordon ran for 80 miles to join the Union Forces in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in March 1863. This famous photo of the welts on his badly "scourged back" was taken while he was being fitted for a uniform.
The Scourged Back: How Runaway Slave and Soldier Private Gordon Changed History
"Contrabands": During the Civil War, thousands of slaves escaped their owners in the South by getting to Union Army camps. Thus freed, many continued on to settle in the North.
The Freedmen of Wisconsin
This woodcut, published in 1831 with a story about the Southampton Rebellion, was titled "Horrific Massacre in Virginia."
Nat Turner’s Rebellion: Horrific or Heroic?
Map of the world showing which countries that traffic in humans to the U.S.; map shows how individual countries comply with anti-trafficking laws. The Kansas City Star 2009<p> With BC-TRAFFICKING:KC, Kansas City Star by Mark Morris<p> 02000000; 08000000; 09000000; CLJ; HUM; krtcrime crime; krtfeatures features; krthumaninterest human interest; krtlabor labor; krtnational national; krtworld world; LAB; krt; mctgraphic; 02001000; 02001007; 02011000; CRI; international law; kidnapping kidnaping kidnap; krtlaw law; 04018000; FIN; ODD; african american african-american black; hispanic; krtdiversity diversity; woman women; youth; eames; human; map; morris; prostitution; slave; slavery; smuggle; smuggled; smuggling; trafficking; victim; kc contributed; 2009; krt2009
Traces of the Trade: The North’s Complicity in Slavery
A man stands in front of the Djingareyber mosque on February 4, 2016 in Timbuktu, central Mali. Mali's fabled city of Timbuktu on February 4 celebrated the recovery of its historic mausoleums, destroyed during an Islamist takeover of northern Mali in 2012 and rebuilt thanks to UN cultural agency UNESCO. TO GO WITH AFP STORY BY SEBASTIEN RIEUSSEC / AFP / SÉBASTIEN RIEUSSEC
African Peoples Before Captivity
Shackles from Slave Ship Henrietta Marie
Kidnapped: The Middle Passage

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"Redemption" is one of America's Black Holocaust Museum's four themes, which serve as pillars in our virtual museum.

Redemption is the act of saving – or being saved – from sin, error, or evil. Sometimes one person redeems another, or many others. Sometimes people redeem themselves. We tell the stories of both kinds of redemption.

Many events and breaking news articles continue to showcase this theme as Black Americans break stereotypes and barriers to success.

Life After Hate: A Former White Power Leader Redeems Himself

April 22, 2012
Arno Michaels

Arno Michaels grew up as a gifted child of privilege. In his teens he became a white-power extremist, a leader of skinheads. Today he is an international activist for peace, justice, and basic human kindness. Read his story and watch a video about his transformation and redemption.

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Inheriting Home: The Skeletons in Pa’s Closet

August 21, 2012
Harps on porch 1919

With its store of family memories, Arkansas defines home for me. But embracing and claiming it as my own is prickly business. “Home” has closets of skeletons that are anything but comforting: the Lost Cause, Jim Crow, the Ku Klux Klan, lynchings.

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“Always In Season” Film on Lynching and Restoration to Screen in Milwaukee

October 30, 2016

Always in Season is a feature-length documentary film that shows the impact of past and current racial terrorism on our country today through the stories of four communities affected by lynchings. Screening at ABHM’s 2017 Founder’s Day Gathering for Racial Repair and Reconciliation will be followed by a Q & A and small group discussions with representatives from groups around the country who are healing through commemorations of lynchings and other forms of racial terrorism.

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Shaking the Family Tree: My Journey of Recovery, Repair and Renovation

July 9, 2014

School teacher Warren Read never suspected that the beloved great-grandfather he had put on a pedestal had actively taken part in murdering three young African Americans in Duluth, MN in 1920. His discovery of the truth shook him and sent him on a journey to rebalance his world.

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“Race” – The History of a Persistent Myth

July 26, 2015

For more than 400 years, the economic, social, and political behavior of Americans has been shaped by ideas about “races” and racial differences. Where did these powerful ideas come from – and are they true? How have your ideas about racial differences been affected?

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Traces of the Trade: The North’s Complicity in Slavery

August 14, 2015

Learn about the significant complicity of the northern states in the slave trade and slaveholding in the history of slavery in the United States. Many northern industries and business were dependent on slave labor in both the North and South. Northern consumers were dependent on the products of this slave labor for food, clothing, and amenities like rum and sugar.

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Peering Through White-Rimmed Glasses: A Letter to My Fellow White Americans

November 29, 2016

A long-time white anti-bias educator and activist finds that her fellow white Americans are increasingly eager to understand America’s racial hierarchy and their part in it. A discussion of the roots and impacts of the White Racial Frame and what white people can do about it.

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