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SLIDESHOW: New Charleston museum preserves African American culture
After 20 years of planning, the International African American Museum opens with a mission to personalize the stories of the brutal journey Africans endured when they were forcefully brought to this country — and humanize their traumas, victories, accomplishments and transformation.
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The International African American Museum and the historic Gadsden’s Wharf where thousands of enslaved Africans debarked. (International African American Museum)
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IAAM with the first ‘a’ not outlined to note the museum’s short name of I AM. (Gwendolyn Glenn / WFAE)
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The museum rests on 18 pillars to prevent it from touching the sacred grounds of the wharf. (Gwendolyn Glenn / WFAE)
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Protective stones in the African Ancestral Memorial Garden. (Gwendolyn Glenn / WFAE)
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The black walls lead to a spot believed to have been a holding area for enslaved Africans as traders waited for their prices to increase. (Gwendolyn Glenn / WFAE)
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The tidal pools show the outlines of captured Africans as they would have been chained in ship hulls. One pool shows departure, one shows arrival to U.S. The water ebbs and flows over figures, denoting those who made it through the Middle Passage and those who did not for various reasons, such as illness, suicide or killed. (Gwendolyn Glenn / WFAE)
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The tidal pools show the outlines of captured Africans as they would have been chained in ship hulls. One pool shows departure, one shows arrival to U.S. The water ebbs and flows over figures, denoting those who made it through the Middle Passage and those who did not for various reasons, such as illness or suicide or they were killed. (Gwendolyn Glenn / WFAE)
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The tear-shaped sculptures are deep enough to grow rice. Rice-growing technology was brought to South Carolina by West Africans. (Gwendolyn Glenn / WFAE)
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A small field of sweetgrass is grown on the museum grounds. Sweetgrass is still used by many in the Charleston area today to make baskets and other wares. (Gwendolyn Glenn / WFAE)
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