National Women’s History Museum Opens With Inaugural Exhibit
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The National Women’s History Museum recently celebrated the opening of its inaugural exhibit in Washington, D.C. The in-person at the MLK Library focuses on Black feminists and their influence on national policy.
Second only to the Library of Congress as a repository of women’s history, the museum has had an online presence for 26 years.
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“Finally, the National Women’s History Museum proudly has opened with an exhibit in a landmark building in the heart of Washington, only a few blocks from the White House,” said Cheri Kaufman, gala chair and New York chair of the National Women’s History Museum and founder of Kaufman Astoria Studios, who further noted that the museum’s exhibit, includes an introduction by Oprah Winfrey.
Named “We Who Believe in Freedom: Black Feminist D.C.,” the exhibit showcases more than 20 Black women activists who contributed to national policy, curated by historians Sherie M. Randolph and Kendra T. Field. Highlighted feminists in the exhibit include Anna Julia Cooper, Mary Church Terrell, Eleanor Holmes Norton and Loretta Ross. These women, according to Randolph and Field, were largely unknown to the public despite significant contributions.
“In the decades after general emancipation, D.C. became an incredibly important destination for freedom’s first generation,” said Field, exhibition curator and associate professor of history and director of the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy at Tufts University. “Tens of thousands of formerly enslaved women and their daughters migrated to D.C. to chart a freer life. Born during the last years of racial slavery in the U.S., women like Anna Julia Cooper and Mary Church Terrell migrated to D.C. and emerged as leading Black feminist educators, activists and theorists. They built and organized the local and national Black women’s club movement and laid important groundwork for generations of Black feminists. It has been an honor to contribute to this important exhibit.”
“The museum is for everyone,” Kaufman said. “We all benefit from great role models. Boys and men, too, can be inspired by witnessing the achievements of women who helped shape the Great American Story. Every young girl who uses our archives or visits the exhibits of the museum will be energized and encouraged by what so many have accomplished before them.”
In addition to opening its first in-person exhibit the National Women’s History Museum celebrated trailblazing women who have made, and continue to make, history through their achievements at the 12th annual Women Making History Awards. The awards were held at the Schuyler in the Hamilton Hotel in Washington, D.C.
The ceremony served to celebrate, amplify and uplift the stories and voices of women. Serving as Honorary co-chairs at the event were Viola Davis and Meryl Streep. This year’s honorees included Uma Thurman, Sharon Stone, Ashley Graham, Eleanor Holmes Norton and Willie Pearl Mackey King.
These honorees, said Kaufman, have “stories that are deeply inspiring and the contributions that they have made to American history deserve to be praised and celebrated.”
In a message to the awards gala, Meryl Streep, a supporter of the museum for more than two decades, praised the organization for illuminating the achievements of women, “whose stories have been untold, forgotten and ignored for far too long.”
“What a moment in history,” said Kaufman, who gave the event’s opening speech. “The five Women Making History Award honorees are living proof that girls with big dreams become women with tremendous vision. If you can see it, you can be it.”
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