 | |
  Location within Michigan | |
| Established | 1996 |
|---|---|
| Location | Big Rapids, Michigan |
| Coordinates | 43°41′15″N 85°28′57″W / 43.68748°N 85.48243°W |
| Type | History museum |
| Collection size | 10,000 |
| Curator | David Pilgrim |
| Owner | Ferris State University |
| Website | www |
The Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia at Ferris State University, Big Rapids, Michigan, displays a wide variety of everyday artifacts depicting the history of racist portrayals of African Americans in American popular culture.[1] The mission of the Jim Crow Museum is to use objects of intolerance to teach tolerance and promote social justice.[2]
The Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia has a collection of over 10,000 objects, primarily created between the 1870s and the 1960s. It also includes contemporary objects. The museum is named after Jim Crow, a song-and-dance caricature of black people that by 1838 had become a pejorative expression meaning "Negro". When at the end of the 19th century American legislatures passed laws of racial segregation directed against blacks, these statutes became known as the Jim Crow laws.[3]
The museum demonstrates how racist ideas and anti-black images were pervasive within American culture. It also displays artifacts related to contemporary forms of racism, stories about African American achievements, and the Civil Rights Movement.
- ^ Fox, Helen (2009). When Race Breaks Out: Conversations about race and racism in college classrooms (Revised ed.). New York: Peter Lang Publishing. p. 202. ISBN 978-1-4331-0592-0.
- ^ "Jim Crow Museum - Ferris State University". ferris.edu. Retrieved 2018-01-30.
- ^ Woodward, C. Vann and McFeely, William S. (2001), The Strange Career of Jim Crow. p. 7