Thursday, March 28, 2024

Newseum Makes Some Noise with Exhibit on Students and the Civil Rights Movement

NEWSEUM MAKE SOME NOISE

Washington, DC, USA /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — On Aug. 2, 2013, in time for the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, the Newseum will open “Make Some Noise: Students and the Civil Rights Movement,” an exhibit that explores the new generation of student leaders in the early 1960s who fought segregation by making their voices heard and exercising their First Amendment rights. The exhibit will feature a section of the original F.W. Woolworth lunch counter in Greensboro, N.C., where in 1960 four African-American college students launched the sit-in movement by refusing to leave their counter stools after being denied service in the whites-only section.

“Make Some Noise” will spotlight key figures in the student civil rights movement, including John Lewis, now a U.S. representative from Georgia, and Julian Bond, who later became chairman of the NAACP. Through the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, the young activists took direct action to end segregation and break down racial barriers in voting rights, education and the workplace by organizing sit-ins, marches and voter registration drives.

The exhibit also will feature a bronze casting of the Birmingham, Ala., jail cell door behind which civil rights leader the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. penned his famous “Letter From Birmingham Jail” in 1963.

In addition to “Make Some Noise,” the Newseum will launch a three-year changing exhibit, “Civil Rights at 50,” which will be updated each year to chronicle milestones in the civil rights movement from 1963, 1964 and 1965 through historic front pages, magazines and news images. “Civil Rights at 50” will be on display through 2015.

On June 5, the Newseum kicks off a series of programs on the civil rights movement with “The Legacy of Civil Rights Leader Medgar Evers.” Evers, a civil rights activist, was assassinated June 12, 1963, in his driveway in Mississippi. His widow, Myrlie Evers, chairman of the Medgar & Myrlie Evers Institute, will take part in a panel discussion with Julian Bond and Jerry Mitchell, an investigative reporter for The Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Miss., whose work in the 1990s helped convict the man who assassinated Evers. Gwen Ifill, senior correspondent for “PBS NewsHour,” will moderate the discussion. Tickets to the7:30 p.m. program are free but must be reserved through the Newseum’s website.

Joe Kleiman
Joe Kleimanhttp://wwww.themedreality.com
Raised in San Diego on theme parks, zoos, and IMAX films, InPark's Senior Correspondent Joe Kleiman would expand his childhood loves into two decades as a projectionist and theater director within the giant screen industry. In addition to his work in commercial and museum operations, Joe has volunteered his time to animal husbandry at leading facilities in California and Texas and has played a leading management role for a number of performing arts companies. Joe previously served as News Editor and has remained a contributing author to InPark Magazine since 2011. HIs writing has also appeared in Sound & Communications, LF Examiner, Jim Hill Media, The Planetarian, Behind the Thrills, and MiceChat His blog, ThemedReality.com takes an unconventional look at the attractions industry. Follow on twitter @ThemesRenewed Joe lives in Sacramento, California with his wife, dog, and a ghost.

Related Articles

Latest Articles