Self-Guided Tours

Explore Our Online Exhibits

voting_rights_1960-thumb-640xauto-5660
Voting Rights for Blacks and Poor Whites in the Jim Crow South
WeWashForWhitePeople
The Five Pillars of Jim Crow
Shackles from Slave Ship Henrietta Marie
Elmer Jackson – Working Man, Beloved Son and Brother
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”
bernard.lafayette
Bernard Lafayette: An Unsung Veteran of the Voting Rights Struggle
George Zimmerman
Why the Zimmerman Jury Failed Us
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
Engene Crawford, center, grandson of lynching victim Anthony Crawford, and his family react during a reconciliation service at Friendship Worship Center Tuesday in Abbeville, S.C. (Mary Ann Chastain  /  AP)
Service Seeks Reconciliation Over 1916 Lynching
In this Sept. 15, 1963 file photo, emergency workers and others stand around a large crater from a bomb which killed four black girls in the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala. The windows of the building across the street in the background were also blown out. (AP Photo)
The Speech That Shocked Birmingham the Day After the Church Bombing
"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

Breaking News

Worldwide Community Events

2025 November

Week 6

Sun 26
Mon 27
Tue 28
Wed 29
Thu 30
Fri 31
Sat 1
Sun 2
Mon 3
Tue 4
Wed 5
Thu 6
Fri 7
Sat 8
Sun 9
Mon 10
Tue 11
Wed 12
Thu 13
Fri 14
Sat 15
Sun 16
Mon 17
Tue 18
Wed 19
Thu 20
Fri 21
Sat 22
Sun 23
Mon 24
Tue 25
Wed 26
Thu 27
Fri 28
Sat 29
Sun 30
Mon 1
Tue 2
Wed 3
Thu 4
Fri 5
Sat 6
  • No Events

  • No Events

  • No Events

  • No Events

  • No Events

  • No Events

Share

This Virtual Museum contains over 4600 history exhibits and news stories! Choose to tour a specific topic important to you!  Here's how:

In this gallery, you will find a variety self-guided tours to help you better understand issues and topics related to the African Diaspora, regardless of when they took place. By doing so, we provide you new ways to discover all this museum offers. Through our navigation, you can find chronological History Exhibits by era, read the latest Breaking News, and find upcoming local and global Events.

But most important issues do not arise and get resolved at a single point in time. Indeed, many of the issues that Black Americans struggle with have remained with us over decades ––  if not centuries!

Therefore, our self-guided tours provide you two additional ways to explore this museum and better understand issues that continue to impact the descendants of kidnapped Africans:

  • By individual topics (for example, Juneteenth Day or how the concept of "race" came to be)
  • By ABHvM's Four Themes (Remembrance, Resistance, Redemption, and Reconciliation)

Introductory pages in each tour give you general background on the tour's content. Below the introduction, we display exhibits about different aspects of the topic. Clicking links in the exhibits will bring up additional related information to help you see how topics are connected. Pages automatically update each time we add new content.

Check back soon for even more self-guided tours!

Browse By Our Museum's Four Themes

Below, you explore the History Exhibits, Events, and Breaking News articles in each of the Four Themes.

We remember important historical events and people. Some of these are well-known, but most are not. The stories told in most of ABHvM's exhibits have been left out of our history books or been told incompletely.

People of African descent in this country have been targets of injustice for five hundred years, but they have not been simply victims. At ABHvM we also remember the many ways that black people and freedom-loving white people have resisted injustice.

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.

Our founder, Dr. James Cameron, encouraged us to remember and to speak honestly and respectfully about our shared racial history,  believing this would lead to racial reconciliation.

or Browse by Specific Topic

If you prefer, you can browse exhibits and articles by specific topic to learn about:

Black Lives Matter, sometimes shortened to “BLM,” is an anti-racist movement that highlights racism and the disparities that evolve from racism.

The COVID-19 pandemic has killed nearly 7 million people since 2020, and has highlighted racial inequalities in healthcare and jobs.

The lynching of Emmett Till is among the most infamous lynchings in the United States. 

June 19th, also known as Juneteenth, is a day that recognizes the end of slavery in the United States.

Milwaukee is Wisconsin's city, site of ABHM, and home to a large Black community where racial issues play out often.

Race is a social construct that categorizes people based on different physical features, specifically skin color. It has been used to justify mistreatment from slavery to redlining. 

White supremacy is the belief that white people are better than those of other races and includes actions that preserve power for white people.