Seventeen people sat in a room in the Art Center of Battle Creek on Wednesday, intently watching the flickering image of a man in blackface dance in a loose-limbed, foolish fashion.
"In 1836, Jim Crow was born," said the sonorous voice of a narrator. "He began his strange career as a malicious minstrel character of the black man, made by a white man, to amuse white audiences."
This is part of a video explaining the rise and fall of Jim Crow; it started with a vaudeville act and led to footage of lynching and segregation. It reflected the malevolent nature and historical significance of the items upstairs, waiting to be unpacked from boxes for a new exhibit.
The group in the art center was beginning its docent training for "Hateful Things," a weeklong exhibit on loan from the Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia at Ferris State University. The people in the room were mostly retired teachers, and most were old enough to remember the time of institutional segregation between races. It will be their jobs to take student groups through the museum, to help put the objects into context.
The exhibit is full of items with racist images, usually items made for domestic use, such as saltshakers and ashtrays.
"It's a piece of history that needs to be talked about, so we can learn from it," said Linda Holderbaum, director of the art center.
She was approached about hosting "Hateful Things" by Dr. Margaret Lincoln, a member of the Jim Crow Exhibit planning committee.
Lincoln first had the idea to bring the exhibit to Battle Creek after learning that a teacher at Lakeview High School was using the museum's online archive for class. Lincoln's doctoral work focused on the educational benefits of using on-site primary sources, and has worked with the Library of Congress on mentoring teachers.
"This all relates to history," Lincoln said. "The real objects, the primary sources, it lets them see what exists then and now, they formulate their own questions and they understand why it matters."
Lincoln teamed up with her American Memory Fellows colleague Scott Durham, who has experience with the Teaching American History grant. They formed a coalition of local community groups under the slogan "
