African-American History Reflected In Slave-Ship Names

Sun., July 6, 1997

Knight-Ridder

It is the irony of some of the ships’ names that is so striking: Expectation, Deliverance, Independence.

Then there are the other names: Revenge and Plantation.

If the names of the more than 2,000 ships that carried Africans to America symbolize the contradictions of the African American experience, so too does the new museum here that tells of agony and hope, injustice and triumph.

The ships’ names adorn a replica of a slave ship that is the centerpiece of the Museum of African-American History, which opened in April. The museum is the largest of its kind in the nation and is attracting thousands of visitors to downtown Detroit.

With displays from slavery to the Million Man March, it is a museum with a mission in a country still divided by race.

“It’s no secret America has a race problem,” said the museum’s president, Kimberly Camp. “We recognize the story we’re telling is a difficult one because we’re all changed by racism. (But) we can address the race issue with education.”

The new museum is in Detroit’s cultural area, with a science museum, art institute and other attractions nearby.

Attendance has averaged nearly 2,500 people a day since the opening.

“We saw the audience as everybody - African American, European American” in developing the exhibits, Camp said.

Visitors enter the museum through a soaring atrium, topped with a dome meant to evoke an African hut and ringed by the flags of African countries. They walk across a stirring mosaic floor and enter the museum’s main exhibit area, to be greeted by the slave ship replica.

Through a loudspeaker, a narrator intones, “These are the names of the ships that changed our history.”

It is with those words that visitors also learn that this is a museum with a point of view. The narration and displays are not in the formal, third person, but are an invitation to listen to a story.

The Museum of African-American History is at 315 E. Warren Ave., Detroit, MI 48201-1443. Admission is $3 for adults and $2 for children 12 and under. Phone: 313-494-5800.

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