Black history and humanity are focus of SoFi’s Kinsey art exhibit

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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).

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

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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

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April 13, 2022

By Steve Chiotakis, KCRW

(Left to right) Bernard, Shirley, and Khalil Kinsey pose at the Kinsey Collection on display at SoFi Stadium. (Adam Pantozzi/SoFi Stadium)

The Kinsey African American Art & History Collection has toured 35 cities across America over the last 15 years. Now it’s on display inside SoFi Stadium at Hollywood Park in Inglewood.

Bernard and Shirley Kinsey, who are married, have spent decades collecting photographs, sculptures, and rare letters that capture the African American experience from the 16th century to today…

One of the pieces on display is the 1773 first edition of “Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral” by Phillis Wheatley. It’s the first book of poetry published by an African American author in the United States. She was kidnapped from Gambia and sold into enslavement to the Wheatley family. She started writing her book of poems at age 13 and published the book at age 17.

Read about the other pieces in this historic art exhibit.

Art depicts black history in the form of quilts and photos, but collecting that art is sometimes a labor of love.

Check out our breaking news for other black culture announcements.

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