ABHM Presents: Unmasked

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An NAACP flyer campaigning for the Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill, which passed the U.S. House of Representatives in 1922, but was filibustered to defeat in the Senate. Dyer, the NAACP, and freedom fighters around the country, like Flossie Baily, struggled for years to get the Dyer and other anti-lynching bills passed, to no avail. Today there is still no U.S. law specifically against lynching. In 2005, eighty of the 100 U.S. Senators voted for a resolution to apologize to victims' families and the country for their failure to outlaw lynching. Courtesy of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Some Exhibits to Come – One Hundred Years of Jim Crow

Bibliography – One Hundred Years Of Jim Crow

Claude, age 23, just months before his 1930 murder. Courtesy of Faith Deeter.

Freedom’s Heroes During Jim Crow: Flossie Bailey and the Deeters

Souvenir Portrait of the Lynching of Abram Smith and Thomas Shipp, August 7, 1930, by studio photographer Lawrence Beitler. Courtesy of the Indiana Hisorical Society.

An Iconic Lynching in the North

Claxton Dekle – Prosperous Farmer, Husband & Father of Two

Ancient manuscripts about mathematics and astronomy from Timbuktu, Mali

Some Exhibits to Come – African Peoples Before Captivity

Shackles for Adults & Children from the Henrietta Marie

Some Exhibits to Come – The Middle Passage

What I Saw Aboard a Slave Ship in 1829

Life After Hate: A Former White Power Leader Redeems Himself

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July 29, 2024

Unmasked: The 1935 Anti-Lynching Exhibits & Community Remembrance

Unmasked is an art installation reimagining two historic exhibitions of anti-lynching art held in 1935. At the time, these displays advanced competing notions of critical, antiracist artwork. The installation combines historical artworks and ephemera with contemporary efforts to commemorate the victims of lynching in Indiana, including ABHM founder, Dr. James Cameron. This memory work is crucial to community efforts advancing meaningful conversations at the heart of ABHM’s mission about racial reconciliation, the emancipatory possibilities of restitution, and the creation of permanent memorials to the victims of white supremacy, in Indiana and elsewhere. The goal of Unmasked is to use the legacy of the 1935 exhibits to provoke discussions about art and politics, the resurgence of hate crimes, and teaching tolerance.

At ABHM from:
August 7th – September 7th, 2024
Tuesday – Thursday 10 AM to 5 PM
Friday – Saturday 10 AM to 3 PM

This exhibit is made possible with support from the Allen Whitehill Clowes Charitable Foundation, Eli Lilly and Company Foundation, the Department of American Studies, Indiana University, Bloomington, and the Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management in the College of Natural Resources of North Carolina State University.

Learn more about the traveling Unmasked exhibit

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Comments Are Welcome

Note: We moderate submissions in order to create a space for meaningful dialogue, a space where museum visitors – adults and youth –– can exchange informed, thoughtful, and relevant comments that add value to our exhibits.

Racial slurs, personal attacks, obscenity, profanity, and SHOUTING do not meet the above standard. Such comments are posted in the exhibit Hateful Speech. Commercial promotions, impersonations, and incoherent comments likewise fail to meet our goals, so will not be posted. Submissions longer than 120 words will be shortened.

See our full Comments Policy here.