Race, Rage & Redemption at The Mark Twain House: Visitor Response: "How real were the emotions"

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Visitor Response: "How real were the emotions"

The Hateful Things exhibit was by far my favorite part of our trip. The reason being is that it displays the ways in which a group of people for viewed and judged by another with sources and visual aids. Sure, the racism that we learn in school covers the Jim Crow laws, segregation, ect. but what that racism does not cover is the reality of it all. It was not until that I saw these pictures, artifacts and read the stories that it hit me: these things actually happened. They are not made up stories to reenact the harsh treatments back then, they are real. And how real were the emotions and chills that ran down my spine when I saw some very unforgettable pictures. I believe that this exhibit is one that one must visit, and more than once is even better.

Sincerely,

Han Nguyen

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About Race, Rage & Redemption

Our Statement of Purpose

"I have a goal to create a room that when people come into that room, it changes the way they talk about race.” -- Dr. David Pilgrim: Curator, Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia

For more than eighty years, The Mark Twain House and Museum has fulfilled its primary mission to promote the life and legacy of Mark Twain by actively serving as a catalyst for serious public discourse on the most enduring American issues concerning race relations, politics, and social justice.

It is in this spirit that we have made our 2012 theme: Race, Rage, and Redemption, and will host a very provocative exhibition called “Hateful Things” from the Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia at Ferris State University. It features several dozen artifacts from popular culture that graphically illustrate the racist stereotypes that have permeated our society from Emancipation to the present day.

We also will present a companion exhibition called “A Sound Heart, and Deformed Conscience,” which utilizes artifacts and images from our own collection to chronicle the evolving racial attitudes of Mark Twain over the course of his life from 1835-1910.

You are probably aware that in his youth Mark Twain was a Southern racist, but as he matured he made tremendous progress in his views on race and dedicated much of his adult life to challenging all Americans to confront our lingering bigotry and racial repression after the Civil War. It may surprise some to learn that Mark Twain, a man often remembered merely as a clever humorist, felt so deeply about the chronic issue of racial intolerance in our nation that he said late in life that:

All the talk about tolerance, in anything or anywhere, is plainly a gentle lie. It does not exist. It is in no man's heart; but it unconsciously, and by moss-grown inherited habit, drivels and slobbers from all men's lips.

- Mark Twain's Autobiography

Mark Twain tried to start us talking about race by writing such books as Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, but he knew that our discussion would have to go on long after his death, and that our tendency would be to try to ignore it, or pay it mere lip service. In the stifling climate of “political correctness” today, we have nearly succeeded in removing any constructive dialog on the subject from the institutional forums where it should be regularly featured.

Therefore, we join the Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia in seeking to “create a room” in which people begin to “change the way they talk about race,” even if it means just starting to talk about it- again!

The mission of this blog is to provide a public forum to discuss the exhibits and their related programming. If you would like to contribute to the discussion, please see the submission guidelines at the bottom of this page.

Please note: these exhibitions contain inflammatory and upsetting imagery. Parental discretion is advised.