Take a Journey through the Life of Nelson Mandela at the U.S. Debut of Mandela: The Official Exhibition

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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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April 20, 2021

Presented by the Milwaukee Public Museum in partnership with America’s Black Holocaust Museum. April 23rd through August 1st, 2021

We are excited to announce our partnership with the Milwaukee Public Museum for the United States debut of Nelson Mandela: The Official Exhibition, a new, global-touring exhibition that takes visitors on a personal journey through the life of the world’s most iconic freedom-fighter and political leader. Designed to educate, entertain, and inspire, this immersive and interactive exhibition features previously unseen film, photos, and the display of more than 150 historical artifacts and personal effects on loan from the Mandela family, museums, and archives worldwide.

Through a series of immersive zones – each one a dramatically different experience – the narrative takes us on a journey through a remarkable life and provides fresh insight into the people, places, and events that formed his character and the challenges he faced.

Discover Nelson Mandela’s epic story of heroic struggle, forgiveness, and compassion explored in new, personal, and revealing ways.

Visitors will go back in time to the rural childhood home that shaped the great leader that he became. See the years of turbulent struggle against the apartheid regime and learn how his remarkable spirit remained unbroken, but at great personal cost. Relive the global celebration of his release after 27 years in prison, and his historic ascent as South Africa’s first democratically elected president.

With wisdom from the man himself plus exclusive insights from his family and those that knew him best, visitors will see Nelson Mandela in a new light. A century since his birth and seven years since his passing, what does “Nelson Mandela” mean today, in a world where inequality and injustice are still rife? Mandela: The Official Exhibition asks these difficult questions and examines his legacy. Nelson Mandela’s values and unshakable belief in a better world are as vital now as they were during his lifetime.

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.