You ask me how do I feel/About the museum/You asked me what I liked/What intrigued me/What moved me
What if I said I didn’t like any of it/That I didn’t like climbing back to 1400/To the start of it all
These are the first two lines of the poem senior Jason Brown wrote to reflect on his visit to the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C.
Brown joined fellow seniors Grace Larew, Nathan Sitti and junior Alejandra Martinez on a visit to the museum with Creighton President, the Rev. Daniel S. Hendrickson, SJ, earlier this month.
“Really, slavery is our nation’s original sin, and the museum is a testament to the complexity and complicity of racial bias in our lives,” Fr. Hendrickson said. “As the evolving exhibits climb uphill through history, showcasing remarkable progress, the events of the recent few years strongly suggest that we have a lot more work to do in myriad ways: equal opportunity, exacting justice, and embracing true kinship.”
The museum, which opened in September 2016, consists of three floors. Visitors ride an elevator down to the first floor, where they are transported to the year 1400, and an exhibit on slavery.
“Slavery is one of those things you read about in a textbook, and it’s hard to put a face and a name to the idea of slavery happening in this country,” Larew said. “In a lot of ways, it makes you uncomfortable, makes you think about the impact that era of time had on history and still has on history.”
The museum then goes through the Revolutionary War to the Civil War to the civil rights movement.
“Having a young mother and young grandparents, knowing that some of these things were affecting their lives was big to me,” Brown said of the civil rights movement.
“There are so many ideas of the civil rights movement that have yet to come to fruition,” Larew said. “It makes you think as a country what have we done, what have we not done.”
After touring the museum, the students and Fr. Hendrickson visited the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, and walked along the Tidal Basin, ending at the Thomas Jefferson Memorial.
On the steps of the memorial, the group reflected on their visit and experiences that day, and thoughts for the future.
“How can I use my education and opportunity to better the lives of individuals that don’t have that?” Brown said.
“I just felt a sense of responsibility,” Martinez said. “I felt like it’s my duty now, that current day issues, representations of what has happened in the past, don’t keep occurring.”
Later that night, the students headed off on their own, where they walked down the National Mall to see the White House and the Washington Monument. They then took a taxi to grab dinner in the historic Georgetown neighborhood in northwest Washington.
When they arrived back in Omaha, Brown wrote a poem below to reflect on his visit.
You ask me how do I feel
About the museum
You asked me what I liked
What intrigued me
What moved me
What if I said I didn’t like any of it
That I didn’t like climbing back to 1400
To the start of it all
That I didn’t like climbing through each exhibit
Not because it was disgusting
Or scary
But because as you climb through time
The more real it becomes
Slavery doesn’t seem real
It’s something in a book
But when your mom is younger
And your grandparents are slightly older
than some of the momentous occasions
That’s scary
When you move from the depths of slavery
To the second
And third floors
You climb through time
You see progress
But how much further have we come
When you can flash images from the past of
church murders AND BOMBINGS
Innocent kids killed
Police brutality
KKK
With images of
Today
How can I say I liked it
How can I say liked realizing
A FIGHT does still remain
How does it feel to realize you love some
Of the same European countries that
At one point didn’t love you
How does it feel to have chosen to
GO BACK
Back across the water
To Spain
And
The Netherlands
How can I say I liked
Walking away feeling hopeless
How can I say I liked
Visiting a White House that doesn’t seem to care
No.
I didn’t like the museum.
But don’t let that stop your from going.
I don’t want you to like it either
Hate it
Loathe it
But don’t let it
Defeat you
