Many artists and designers in the NMAAHC collection explore the role that hair plays within their own Black identities. These artists highlight Black hair’s ability to form meaning due to its malleable nature that gives way to creative symbolism. The cultural significance of Black hair manifests through the themes demonstrated in art works that consider race through the lenses of gender, space, and time.

Beginning in the early 1960s, photographer Frank Espada (1930–2014) attended rallies and boycotts, snapping images of New York youth and the battles fought by them and their families.

At the heart of the Black Joy movement is what many scholars, journalists, authors, and others are describing as resistance, resilience, and reclamation of Black Humanity. Life brings everyone challenges, disappointments, losses, and unexpected difficulties, regardless of race. But when race is added to the mix, the situation is compounded exponentially. When people live in a world that devalues them because they are black or brown as well as dismisses their contributions to the larger society, Black Joy is and has been an effective tool that has allowed individuals and groups to shift the impact of negative narratives and events in their favor.

The late former Marvel editor-in-chief Stan Lee may have been was a major proponent to bringing the king of the fictional nation Wakanda to life, T’Challa, the Black Panther, was never expected to gain long-term success.

Although the impressive Black Panther Party uniform garnered public attention, it was not a fashion statement. From top to bottom the Black Panther uniform was strategic and symbolic.

Elizabeth Catlett (1915–2012) was exiled from the United States due to the political themes she explored in her art. Her legacy is one of cultural belonging and activism that provokes conversations about the role of art among continental American neighbors: the U.S. and Mexico.

On September 24, 2021, the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) will display clothing and other items in possession of Trayvon Martin when he was fatally shot in 2012. The items will be a part of the Legacies Gallery in the “Make Good the Promises: Reconstruction and Its Legacies” exhibition.

The Olympic and Paralympic Games are the world’s biggest stage for athletes. For many African Americans, this high level of visibility has become a platform not just for their talents and abilities, but also for their community values, their advocacy, and their voices.

Whether it’s the synthesizer sounds of the 80s, cross-genre MP3 mashups of the 90s, or the popularization of autotune in the 2000s, technology has always been a driving force behind hip-hop music.

One year after the killing of George Floyd, the National Museum of African American History and Culture reflects on the incidents of last summer in what was the largest collective protest ever on U.S. soil. Today, we memorialize George Floyd and so many others whose lives ended tragically and abruptly.