Raising up Of the Moses of Our People
Celebrating our Kings
& Queens & Empresses
Our own Black Shining Prince
Our Dukes and Divas
Social Justice
From quiet, personal acts of courage to mass movements, African Americans have fought and continue to fight oppression and discrimination. Demonstrations of resilience are fundamental to the African American experience — and capturing these stories is core to the Museum’s mission.
As we reexamine our past and make connections to the issues we face today, your investment helps us expand essential social justice content and programming.
Select Programs and Initiatives
Sports and Race Initiative
One of the most visited galleries in the Museum is Sports: Leveling the Playing Field, which documents the role of sports in the African American fight for greater freedom and equality. With the Sports and Race Initiative, we are harnessing the power and appeal of sports to foster positive social change through programs and collaborative projects that demonstrate the significance of sports in African American history and culture.
Your contribution will help us develop public programming that focuses on youth development in underserved communities and engages professional athletes; collect and preserve important sports artifacts; create engaging traveling exhibitions; and influence athletes, sports leagues and organizations, policymakers, and cultural institutions to produce positive social change.
Educator for Equity in STEM
African Americans have been central to America’s science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) enterprise since the nation’s beginning, yet their names and contributions have been routinely overlooked. Museum educators counter this omission by sharing the lesser-known stories and far-reaching impacts of African Americans in STEM.
Educator for Equity in STEM is devoted to using STEM principles and practices, as well as stories grounded in African American achievement, to empower third- and twelfth-grade students and teachers. By endowing this key position, you will ensure our ability to provide effective teacher training in STEM, offer stimulating hands-on activities, inform students of the many STEM careers available, and explore African American contributions to these fields.
Internships and Fellowships
While many see museums as buildings filled with objects, we see ourselves as educators. We educate on the array of history-related topics presented in our galleries as well as the many disciplines associated with museum work — professions in which African Americans are underrepresented.
For many, being able to accept a life-changing internship or fellowship is based on funding. Through an endowed intern and fellowship program, we can provide stipends as well as resources for housing and transportation that remove barriers for career development. Your investment in NMAAHC can ensure indispensable training opportunities for those who will assume the mantle of identifying, documenting, curating, conserving, and digitizing treasured artifacts that reflect African American history and culture for years to come.