The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) has opened a new illuminating exhibition, “Forces for Change: Mary McLeod Bethune and Black Women’s Activism.”
The 640-square-foot exhibition explores the legacy of Mary McLeod Bethune and the National Council of Negro Women, as well as the strategies Black women have used to enact change through education, creativity and organizing. The exhibition is a permanent and dynamic space highlighting new stories relating to Black women activists through 35 objects, 75 images and two digital-media pieces. For more details about the exhibition, visit nmaahc.si.edu/ForcesForChange.
“Against incalculable odds, the women featured in this exhibition built institutions of learning, ignited social and political movements, formed enduring organizations, and created beauty in multifarious art forms, all the while representing their country nationally and internationally,” said Tulani Salahu-Din, NMAAHC’s museum specialist, language and literature. “This re-curated space in the museum is solely dedicated to telling their stories of vision, commitment, fortitude, and courage and to celebrating their impact as forces for positive change in the United States and around the world.”
Visitors will engage with interactive media, infographics and objects connected to Black women, including Bethune’s travel diary, Dorothy Height’s hat, an antique desk owned by Etta Moten Barnett and a red silk rose worn by Sybrina Fulton. The reinterpreted and restored space connects Bethune’s legacy across time to other Black women who have been inspired by and built upon her work. This exhibition elevates the stories of Black women advocating for social change dating from the turn of the 20th century to the present.
A highlight of the space is an 8-foot-tall plaster sculpture of Bethune, which served as the original model for the final statue carved in marble by artist Nilda Comas for the U.S. Capitol Building’s National Statuary Hall. In 2022, Bethune became the first African American honored with a state-commissioned statue in the U.S. Capitol Building’s National Statuary Hall Collection.
This exhibition represents a dynamic reenvisioning of the “Bethune Room,” a special gallery dedicated to the story of Bethune and the National Council of Negro Women, which first opened in 2016 as part of the “Making a Way Out of No Way” permanent exhibition. “Forces for Change” will offer new perspectives on Black women as activists and illuminate the history of Black women affecting social change.