Art exhibit honors 60 years of racial protests from Civil Rights Act to D.C. statehood

D.C. statehood. Bernie 2020. Transgender rights. Free Gaza. Black Lives Matter.

These are just some of the social justice themes that 27 local artists have visualized in an exhibit honoring 60 years of racial justice protests since the 1964 Civil Rights Act — and the role of the District in nurturing them.

Organizers call the juried art show at the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities in Southeast a testimony to how the Black struggle for justice in the nation’s capital has overlapped with other left-leaning political causes.

“You can be Black and nonbinary, and the ways we define ourselves are also the ways we need to protect each other,” Michelle May-Curry, the exhibit’s curator, told The Washington Times.

At an opening ceremony Friday, city officials and local artists described the past six decades as an alternating series of victories and defeats for civil rights advocates.

“Know that nationalism, discrimination and racism will never leave this country,” said Cora Masters Barry, a member of the commission who recalled the legacy of her late husband, former D.C. Mayor Marion Barry.

Historical protests featured in the exhibit include University of the District of Columbia students calling for a national Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 1981, an MLK march in 1982, the Jericho march to “free all political prisoners” in 1998 and the March for Science in April 2017.

The exhibit includes political buttons from several protests, ranging from a 1983 demonstration for better jobs and a Code Pink anti-war demonstration to a 2015 Juneteenth rally. One pin from the 1995 Million Man March declares “Justice or Else.”

Arkansas-born civil rights activist Terrence Roberts, a member of the “Little Rock Nine” who joined the first desegregated class at Central High School in 1957, said he woke up every day fearing his name would end up on a “coroner’s list.”

“They were going to kill us. They tried,” Mr. Roberts said.

The 78-work exhibit organizes the art into four distinct sections.

The first section displays painted portraits of key civil rights figures from Frederick Douglass to former President Barack Obama. The second includes photographs of racial justice protests in the city from the 1960s civil rights movement to Black Lives Matter demonstrations in 2020.

“We chose works based on artistic merit and cohesion to the narrative,” Maleke Glee, a juror and director of the Stable Arts Center in Northeast, told The Times. “We have gender and sexual equality, historical documentation and the continued journey to freedom for U.S. citizens. Each artist has a unique political posture.”

Cultural artifacts and mixed media bedeck the third section of the exhibit — including the protest buttons and an American flag with 52 stars, symbolizing the desired statehood of the District and Puerto Rico.

The exhibit’s fourth and final section depicts gender and sexual identity. It primarily features paintings advocating for gender and sexual identity as a protected category in future civil rights legislation.

Local artist Darlene Taylor has three textile collages in the show. She said they recall her childhood growing up in Petworth, where her parents moved in the 1960s from a segregated rural community outside of Richmond, Virginia.

Inspired by photographs, one of her pieces depicts a girl gazing into the distance. Her art features heirloom fabrics, including pieces of cloth from Ms. Taylor’s childhood dining room table.

“She’s standing at the road, looking out at what’s out there and the promise of what could be there,” Ms. Taylor said. “It’s about ending segregation. I’m thinking of the women who raised me and the women who came before them.”

Other themes in this year’s “Legacy: Civil Rights at 60” exhibit include environmental rights and gentrification, said Ms. May-Curry, the curator.

“This show is a call to action, but also a reminder that social justice and the work of artists as storytellers is never finished,” she said. “I think the artists give us many ways of seeing the last 60 years, from joy and celebration to grief and loss, and holding that tension together is essential to social justice.”

Lauren Dugas Glover, public art manager for the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities, said the show inaugurates a planned series of annual social justice exhibits in the commission gallery at 200 I St. SE.

“This space is going to be dedicated to social justice from Martin Luther King Day weekend through Black History Month every year,” she said. This year’s show is free and open on weekdays until March 1.