Redemption

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

2026 May

Week 2

Sun 26
Mon 27
Tue 28
Wed 29
Thu 30
Fri 1
Sat 2
Sun 3
Mon 4
Tue 5
Wed 6
Thu 7
Fri 8
Sat 9
Sun 10
Mon 11
Tue 12
Wed 13
Thu 14
Fri 15
Sat 16
Sun 17
Mon 18
Tue 19
Wed 20
Thu 21
Fri 22
Sat 23
Sun 24
Mon 25
Tue 26
Wed 27
Thu 28
Fri 29
Sat 30
Sun 31
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

"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 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.

Inheriting Home: The Skeletons in Pa’s Closet

August 21, 2012

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.

“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.

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.

“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?

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.

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.