More than 150 pieces of racist memorabilia make up “Overcoming Hateful Things: Stories from the Jim Crow Museum,” now on display at the Pink Palace Museum & Mansion. Raka Nandi, director of exhibits and collections for the museum, assures that the exhibit “is not a shrine to racism but is instead an exhibition that encourages visitors to witness and to reflect on the lessons that we should learn from the past.”
Fraught with racist imagery, these items, from the late 19th century to present, “caricature and stereotype African Americans,” Nandi says. They represent the Jim Crow era, the African-American experience during it, and the way its legacy endures in the modern day. The exhibit has traveled from Ferris State University’s Jim Crow Museum of Racist Imagery in Grand Rapids, Michigan, making this the first time it has traveled outside of Michigan.
The exhibit is the brainchild of David Pilgrim, the founder and director of the Jim Crow Museum, who has collected almost 3,000 objects of Black memorabilia. Eventually, he donated these objects to the university as the foundation of what would become a more than 20,000-piece collection of race-based artifacts in the Jim Crow Museum. To him, these items, while hateful, are helpful for learning, with the right context and intention.
“One of the really profound things that [Pilgrim] said [to the Pink Palace team] was: we love history that is patriotic and that’s happy, but history is also messy, and it makes us uncomfortable, and it’s embracing that that really helps us to learn,” Nandi says.
The objects can be triggering and offensive, but Nandi says, “The flip side of it is, this is also a story of how African Americans during the Jim Crow era became activists, they weren’t passive, and they didn’t see themselves the way in which they were caricatured and stereotyped. It is a story about how when we caricature and stereotype people, it is a way to demote them, to demean them, and the power that lies in that.”
In each thematic section of the exhibit, there are representations of pushback against racist stereotypes. “For instance, in one unit, on one side of a wall, you see all the laws that were put into place during the Jim Crow era,” Nandi says. “… On the other side, you see landmark cases that were passed that allowed our society to move forward.”
Since its opening in May, Nandi has been surprised by the turnout for “Overcoming Hateful Things” as students, church groups, book clubs, even a mah-jongg club have come to view the exhibit. “It’s been interesting to see intergenerational visitors, grandparents coming with their grandkids, people coming who lived through the Jim Crow era or who had parents who lived through the Jim Crow era, and younger people coming in, who have no knowledge of this and are just shocked.” In interactive elements, these visitors have written raw and provocative reflections and responses to the exhibit.
“I’m really proud of the museum for exhibiting ‘Overcoming Hateful Things’ at this moment because I think it’s needed to have these kinds of conversations,” Nandi says. “We’re living in a particular political time where people are afraid to have discussions about race and racism, but we really felt like this was an important exhibition to host.”
Also on view at the museum, just outside of “Overcoming Hateful Things,” is “Ernest Withers: I Am A Man,” a display of Withers’ famous photographs from the 1968 Memphis Sanitation Workers Strike. The collection, which features an original “I AM A MAN” sign, was last shown in 2010.
“Overcoming Hateful Things: Stories from the Jim Crow Museum of Racist Imagery” is on view through October 19th — as is “Ernest Withers: I Am A Man.” Guests are encouraged to review this visitor’s guide before visiting the exhibit with children under age 12. Admission is $21.