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Exhibitions

    nmaahc-building
    Exhibit Location IconAT MUSEUM
    Graphic poster with a stylized overlay text saying "reclaiming my time" with the name "maxine waters" below.

    Reclaiming
    My Time

    Explore design and art about rest, labor, and leisure in the African American community. Learn how artists are reclaiming their time.

    Enter Exhibition
    Exhibit Location IconONLINE ONLY
    A black and white photograph of a family standing in front of a stone house and a large tree.

    MAKE GOOD
     THE PROMISES

    Learn about Reconstruction and its legacies. Explore the African American experience after the end of slavery.

    Explore Reconstruction

    6 Themes

    Exhibit Location IconAT MUSEUM
    Sun Ra, a black alien , is dressed in a pharaoh looking headdress and colorful yellow costume.

    Afrofuturism

    Afrofuturism functions as an expressive outlet for exploring concepts of Black identity, agency, and freedom through creative, intellectual, and artistic work.

    Explore Afrofuturism

    4 Themes

    Exhibit Location IconAT MUSEUM
    An ambrotype of an African American woman with a flag pinned to her chest inside an ordinate gold frame.

    Slavery & Freedom

    1400-1877

    Explore the history of slavery in the U.S. and the stories of African Americans whose struggles for freedom shaped the nation.

    Explore Slavery & Freedom

    4 Parts

    Exhibit Location IconAT MUSEUM
    A purple silk banner with gold fringe and the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs' motto, "LIFTING / AS / WE CLIMB" painted in large gold letters.

    MAKING A WAY OUT OF NO WAY

    Through community institutions and activism, African Americans crafted possibilities in a world that denied them opportunities.

    Explore Making a Way

    6 Themes

    Exhibit Location IconAT MUSEUM
    Photograph of Marvin Gaye in a purple jacket on stage performing

    SPIRIT in the DARK

    Diverse aspects of the Black religious experience are revealed through photographs and stories of individuals featured in Ebony, Jet, and other Johnson Publishing Company publications.

    Explore Spirit in the Dark

    3 Themes

    Exhibit Location IconONLINE ONLY
    African American woman behind a turntable deck. She is wearing a light colored tank top, headphone, glasses and a necklace. A round of light is out of focus in the top left background.

    Hip-Hop
    Origins

    Explore the National Museum of African American History and Culture collection of hip-hop artifacts from different places like the east, south, and west coast.

    Explore Hip-Hop Origins
    Exhibit Location IconONLINE ONLY
    Images of a carte-de-visite photograph of conjoined twins Millie and Christine McCoy.

    Millie Christine

    Millie Christine McCoy were conjoined twins born into slavery in Whiteville, North Carolina. Known as “The Carolina Twins” and the “Two-Headed Nightingale,” the enslaved twins were exhibited before the Civil War as circus and sideshow attractions in parts of the United States and Europe.

    Explore Millie Christine

    3 Themes