Some museums exist for their displays of collected objects or art, and tell their stories in indirect ways, through understanding changes in artistic styles and technology along with the changes in the society that produced them.
But some museums have a stories to tell, sometimes harsh ones, that we need to know and which all too often we don’t, or only know a little, too little to really understand the importance. The Holocaust Museum in Washington is one of those, and so is the much smaller but equally important Springfield and Central Illinois African American History Museum.
Its story includes the history of African Americans in the area and the communities they built and are part of, such as the families represented above, of Black soldiers’ role in the Civil War, and modern movements and identity.
But it also tells the horrifying story of an American holocaust that is little known—the Springfield Race Riot of 1908, when ingrained racism and wide acceptance of prejudice exploded into days of riot, destruction and murder against Springfield’s Black residents.
The museum recounts the events of those days and their aftermath in detail, and I won’t even try to summarize it or try to pick out key points; the whole story should be seen and understood. I’ve included all the panels of the display just below, and clicking on them in the slideshow at the bottom will make them readable in full. As familiar as I am with the racism and repression that have long existed in America, I still found it shocking.
