Black American treasures from turbulent times go on show in Hong Kong

There is no more hallowed American ground, embracing the country’s history, main institutions, seats of government, memorials and monuments, than the National Mall, in Washington. Stretching from the Lincoln Memorial, going past the Washington Monument’s great needle and ending at the United States Capitol, the mall is flanked by all the great Smithsonian museums, including the National Gallery. A key story, however, had long been missing: that of black Americans in the country’s often bloody history.

The call for a dedicated museum to tell that story was made in 1915, but it was not until the 1970s that it was seriously consider­ed. The allocation of a vacant site on the mall in 2006 and the opening last September of architect David Adjaye’s National Museum of African American History and Culture has enabled the tale to be told. Crowds have flocked to the museum, and entry tickets are sold out until March.

Before this museum opened, private initiatives collected and exhibited original documents and other materials relating to the history of black Americans. Bernard and Shirley Kinsey explain that their collection “grew out of our search to know who we are and where we came from, and a desire to share that knowledge with our son”.

Exhibits related to slavery and racism predominate, and such items as letters from civil rights activists Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jnr bring that history alive. Particularly poignant is an original poster of simple text on cardboard: “HONOR KING: END RACISM!” This is one of the posters that was carried through the streets of Memphis, Tennessee, on April 8, 1968, just four days after King’s assassination in that city. A powerful accompanying photograph – of rows of Memphis women and men, black and white, walking in solidarity, carrying these posters – puts this now-artefact into its significant historical context.

Displayed is a lithograph of some of the 22 black American men who sat in the United States Congress between 1870 and 1901; of them, at least 12 were born slaves. A chromolithograph print of black soldiers at Camp William Penn remind us that 180,000 black Americans served as Union soldiers during the civil war. And consider Phillis Wheatley, born around 1753 in West Africa, then sold into slavery. Purchased by a liberal Boston merchant, Wheatley was educated in Greek and Latin. On display here is a 1773 edition of her book of poetry, published in London, which was, at the time, only the third book of poetry published by an American woman.

“Rising Above: the Kinsey African American Art and History Collection” is at University Museum and Art Gallery, the University of Hong Kong, 90 Bonham Road, Pok Fu Lam, until February 26.