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SLIDESHOW: See the new International African American Museum
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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Inside the entrance of the International African America Museum are four, life-sized video screens showing films of aspects of hundreds of years of African American history. (Gwendolyn Glenn / WFAE)
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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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This plaque marks the spot where Gadsden's Wharf was located during the 1800s. (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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This sculpture with the words of Maya Angelou sits in the African Ancestors Memorial Garden. (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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The Gullah Geechee Gallery gives a brief overview of the history and culture of the Gullah Geechee people with a focus on the Lowcountry of South Carolina and Georgia. This gallery examines topics including activism, cultural practices and preservation
(Gwendolyn Glenn / WFAE)
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The Gullah Geechee Gallery. (Gwendolyn Glenn / WFAE)
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One of the displays in the museum shows Bree Newsome removing the Confederate flag from the grounds of the South Carolina State House in 2015. (Gwendolyn Glenn / WFAE)
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Esau Jenkins was a businessman, activist and preacher from Johns Island, South Carolina. When there was no transportation for Black children on the island to attend schools in Charleston, Jenkins had his own bus to take them to school. That bus is in the Smithsonian African American Museum. (Sarah Mobley Smith / WFAE)
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Jennifer Strayhorn and her husband look at a recreation of what Frazier Baker and his baby daughter might have looked like had they not been killed by a white mob after Baker was elected postmaster in Lake City, South Carolina. (Gwendolyn Glenn / WFAE)
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Another display in the museum features Althea Gibson, tennis great and first African American to win a Grand Slam title, also recorded an album. (Sarah Mobley Smith / WFAE)
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Tennis rackets belonging Althea Gibson, the first African American to win a Grand Slam title. (Sarah Mobley Smith / WFAE)
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The display shows the documented real names of Africans before they were changed after arriving in the U.S. (Gwendolyn Glenn / WFAE)
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Carolyn Jabulile White is a Gullah storyteller, Gullah speaker and native of James Island, South Carolina. White hopes the museum will help to better preserve the Gullah Geechee culture. (Gwendolyn Glenn / WFAE)
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Rev. Nelson Rivers, former NAACP president for South Carolina and a Gullah native, says the museum has a chance to tell the story of African Americans without romanticizing it but telling the miracle of African Americans' survival. (Gwendolyn Glenn / WFAE)
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Chief Engagement and Learning Director Malika Pryor shows how visitors can use a story booth to tell their family’s history in the museum’s genealogy center. IAAM staff will be available to assist visitors in researching their family history through millions of database records. (Gwendolyn Glenn / WFAE)
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Ben Horry, of Georgetown, South Carolina, was enslaved on a rice plantation. Horry was 4 years old when the Civil War began. (Sarah Mobley Smith / WFAE)
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