This museum is dedicated to telling the story of the southern black press. The black press is defined as American media owned and operated by African Americans. The black press in the South emerged during the Civil War and grew during the Reconstruction Era. In the decades between Reconstruction and the Civil Rights Movement, the black press expanded across the nation including the South.
African American editors faced pressures unique to their region. While African American editors in the North and West had more freedom to express their views, criticize state, local and national government, and advocate for civil rights movements, editors in the South did not. African American editors in the South were constantly threatened with violent retribution, with many editors getting lynched or seeing their newspaper buildings burned and destroyed.
As a result, the southern black press is often ignored in favor of northern newspapers such as the Chicago Defender, Pittsburgh Courier, and Afro-American. While these papers are important to American history, southern black newspapers reveal the day-to-day experiences of African Americans in the South, how they combatted segregation in their daily lives, and their opinions on the state of thr nation.
Currently no museum dedicated to black press exists and with the Newseum in Washington D.C. permanently closed, few museums address the history of American newspapers and media, especially during the Civil Rights Movement. Furthermore, Civil Rights museums across the South, including the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute in Alabama and the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee, rely on television media more than newspapers. Even when these museums utilize newspapers, they overwhelmingly focus on the white press, ignoring the importance of black newspapers in shaping and organizing the Civil Rights Movement. As a result, this digital museum seeks to bring the southern black press into the national spotlight in order to better understand the Civil Rights Movement.
Additionally, the American historical narrative has the tendency to associate major events with singular figures. For instance, the Civil Rights Movement is largely attributed to the renown figures of Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, and Malcolm X. Though these figures were all critical to the movement, focusing solely on them ignores the breadth of participants in the movement. As a result, by highlighting the southern black press, this museum seeks to elevate some of these voices, while demonstrating how far-reaching the movement truly was.
A fundamental element to this project is to make history accessible, engaging and interactive for the public. Elements have been added to consistently keep visitors engaged through specific, thought-provoking activities that are meant to draw attention to a specific historical themes or events. While a physical museum would feature traditional exhibits, this digital iteration utilizes digital tools to give visitors of all ages the chance to interact with history in different ways. Additionally, it gives the public the ability to use the evidence the museum provides to reach their own conclusions and understand the importance of the southern black press.
While this museum will largely focus on the black press, it will also illuminate the different narratives expressed by the black and white press throughout history. The purpose of this comparison is to demonstrate the complexity of American history to visitors, while building media literacy and an understanding of different viewpoints.