League of Extraordinary Women: DuSable Museum Presents "Freedom's Sisters" Exhibit

By Anthonia Akitunde in Arts & Entertainment on Jan 26, 2010 4:20PM

Here's a little history quiz to start off your day: When did Charlayne Hunter-Gault integrate the University of Georgia? What was the name of the black newspaper investigative journalist Ida B. Wells-Barnett co-owned? Who was the first president of the National Association of Colored Women?

If you don't know the answers or haven't heard of any of these women, fear not. The DuSable Museum of African American History in Hyde Park will remedy that with its newest exhibit "Freedom's Sisters." Created by the Cincinnati Museum Center in 2008, the exhibit profiles the lives and accomplishments of 20 black women who "fought for equality for all Americans." The national traveling show gives these women a place of honor in a part of history men such as Frederick Douglass or Martin Luther King Jr. have typically dominated.

"Freedom's Sisters" encourages a sense of reflectiveness and an enthusiasm for what the future holds. Visitors are greeted by photo projections and a video explaining the heroism exhibited by the honorees. Life-sized displays featuring photos, biographical text and artifact reproductions are spread out over the space.

What really makes the exhibit stand out is its interactivity; it urges you to become part of the history you're experiencing. You can create your own "Freedom's Sisters" book with one page sheets on each honoree, or "write your own page of history" by stepping into a photo booth that prints your image on a customizable page. From the replica of a Montgomery bus interior visitors can sit in to the leaping dog statue that barks when you walk by, you are completely immersed in these women's stories of struggle and uplift.

"I just feel like I'm in an encyclopedia," marveled Mary L. Brown, an educator and assisted daily living consultant from Maryland, who visited the exhibit on Friday.

Dorothy Irene Height, chair and president of the National Council of Negro Women as well as one of the twenty women honored in the exhibit, was on hand to celebrate the three-year touring exhibit's stop in Chicago. During the 97-year-old's speech, her gravelly voice evoked archival images of "For Coloreds Only" signs hung over dingy water fountains and African Americans facing water hoses and police dogs for the basic rights denied to them. Yet she also stressed the possibility for continued advancement in the African American community seen in such historic events as the election of President Barack Obama.

As fellow Freedom’s Sister Harriet Tubman said to the hundreds of slaves she helped escape through the Underground Railroad, "'Look backward, move forward and keep going," Height told the audience.

Oh, and the answers to that earlier history test? 1961, Free Speech and Mary Church Terrell.

"Freedom's Sisters" is currently on display at the DuSable Museum of African American History (740 E. 56th Place) through April 4. Admission is $3 for Adults, $2 for students and seniors, $1 for children under 12, and children under 6 are admitted free.