Our visit to the America I Am started with a montage of many figures that we see in our textbooks, and on television, in inspirational speeches etc. After going through the whole exhibit the meaning of America I Am was very clear. One of the first things that we had to reflect upon a quote from Ruby Dee, "You can only appreciate when you finally find yourself in a position where you're rooting for somebody else's freedom, and not worried about your own." We knew that America had gone through a period of slavery and it was very clear that this exhibit was on the history of African Americans in the USA. Freedom was an important topic throughout the exhibit. There was also an exhibit that focused on the advancement of Americans and was right by the KKK exhibit which really tied in with the title and its meaning. MLK was featured in an exhibit, featuring his jail cell. A famous quote of his came out of his time there: "I have a dream... America as good as it's promise... All men created equal." There were many exhibits but this one was very important we believe to the USA: A voting ballot. Ballots are important icons of America, us being a democracy and all, but this one was especially important: it represented the 15th amendment, which gave all black males the right to vote.
In all honesty we believe that the exhibit could've been more interactive. Then again, it was a lot of information. There was also a slave ship that we went on . Things like this made the essence and history of blacks palpable. It was overall a great learning experience.
