The Utica Institute Museum is proud to announce that our opening travelling exhibit will be a Smithsonian Institution display, “A Place for All People: Introducing the National Museum of African American History and Culture.” The public is invited to view the exhibition in Gallery 2 at the Utica Institute Museum starting with our Founder’s Day soft launch in March.
Organized by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES) in collaboration with the National Museum of African American History and Culture, “A Place for All People” highlights key artifacts that tell the rich and diverse story of the African American experience. From the child-size shackles of a slave and the clothing worn by Carolotta Walls on her first day at Little Rock Central High School to Chuck Berry’s Gibson guitar, “Maybellene,” and the track shoes worn by Olympian Carl Lewis, the exhibition presents a living history that reflects challenge, triumph, faith and hope.
The poster exhibition and related public programs are an opportunity for the Utica Institute Museum to showcase its work in sharing the many stories of African American and African diaspora people and their contributions to the local community and the American story. The museum exists to share the story of Southern Black Education through the eyes of Uticanites from the Utica Institute, Hinds AHS, Utica Junior College, and Hinds Community College’s Utica Campus, a proud HBCU.
The journey to establish this museum began a century ago with a call for a national memorial to honor the contributions of African American Civil War veterans. After decades of efforts by private citizens, organizations and members of Congress, federal legislation was passed in 2003 to create the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Since then, thousands of artifacts have been collected to fill the inspiring new building that has risen on the National Mall. Through its exhibitions and programs, the museum provides a shared lens to view the nation’s history and the possibility for hope and healing. It is a place where all can gather to remember, reflect and embrace America’s story: a place for all people. For more information, visit nmaahc.si.edu.
I think this exhibit is a wonderful addition to the UTICA,MS. campus. it will and has atracted a lot tof visitors to the campus. keep up the great work.
Hello
My grandmother (Beatrice Juanita West) and her sisters (and I’m sure some other members of my family) from Perry County, MS were students at Utica Institute. I haves photographs from her time at school. I believe she may have attended between 1919-1923. By 1924 she had escaped Jim Crow and was living upstate New York working as a maid. She married by grandfather in 1925.
I would love to learn more about Utica Institute and what my grandmother’s experience would have been.