The American Negro Exposition, also known as the Black World's Fair and the Diamond Jubilee Exposition, was a
world's fair
A world's fair, also known as a universal exhibition or an expo, is a large international exhibition designed to showcase the achievements of nations. These exhibitions vary in character and are held in different parts of the world at a specif ...
held in
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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from July until September in 1940, to celebrate the 75th anniversary (also known as a
diamond jubilee
A diamond jubilee celebrates the 60th anniversary of a significant event related to a person (e.g. accession to the throne or wedding, among others) or the 60th anniversary of an institution's founding. The term is also used for 75th anniver ...
) of the end of
slavery in the United States
The legal institution of human chattel slavery, comprising the enslavement primarily of Africans and African Americans, was prevalent in the United States of America from its founding in 1776 until 1865, predominantly in the South. Sl ...
at the
conclusion of the Civil War in 1865.
History
As a result of the discrimination towards African Americans at the 1933
Century of Progress Exposition
A Century of Progress International Exposition, also known as the Chicago World's Fair, was a world's fair held in the city of Chicago, Illinois, United States, from 1933 to 1934. The fair, registered under the Bureau International des Expositi ...
, James Washington, a real estate developer, conceived of the American Negro Exposition.
On July 4, 1940, President
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, from his
Hyde Park home, pressed a button to turn on the lights, officially opening the American Negro Exposition. The main speakers on the opening day were
Chicago mayor
The mayor of Chicago is the chief executive of city government in Chicago, Illinois, the third-largest city in the United States. The mayor is responsible for the administration and management of various city departments, submits proposals and ...
Edward Joseph Kelly
Edward Joseph Kelly (May 1, 1876October 20, 1950) was an American politician who served as the 46th Mayor of Chicago from April 17, 1933 until April 15, 1947.
Prior to being mayor of Chicago, Kelly served as chief engineer of the Chicago Sani ...
as well as
Postmaster General
A Postmaster General, in Anglosphere countries, is the chief executive officer of the postal service of that country, a ministerial office responsible for overseeing all other postmasters. The practice of having a government official responsib ...
James A. Farley. The exposition was held at the
Chicago Coliseum
Chicago Coliseum was the name applied to three large indoor arenas in Chicago, Illinois, which stood successively from the 1860s to 1982; they served as venues for sports events, large (national-class) conventions and as exhibition halls. The f ...
, with 120 exhibits on display. The exposition was organized by
James W. Washington, as president, and was funded through two $75,000 ($1.37 million in 2020) grants from Congress and the
Illinois General Assembly.
Truman Gibson
Truman Kella Gibson, Jr. (January 22, 1912 – December 23, 2005) was an African-American businessman, attorney, government advisor, and later influential boxing promoter who played a unique and unheralded role in the Civil Rights Movement, pr ...
, a member of Roosevelt's "
Black Cabinet", served as executive director for the fair.
Exhibits
Entrance was 25 cents and the organizers expected 2 million people to attend.
The art exhibit comprised 300 paintings and drawings and was called by ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' as "the largest showing of the work of Negro artists ever assembled."
Additionally, there was a Hall of Fame honoring notable African Americans.
Artist
William Edouard Scott created a series of 24 murals for the event, which took him three months to complete. Black Mexican artist
Elizabeth Catlett's master thesis, the limestone sculpture "Negro Mother and Child" won first place in the exposition.
Margaret Walker
Margaret Walker (Margaret Abigail Walker Alexander by marriage; July 7, 1915 – November 30, 1998) was an American poet and writer. She was part of the African-American literary movement in Chicago, known as the Chicago Black Renaissance. H ...
entered a literary competition with the following verses:
Arna Bontemps and
Langston Hughes co-wrote a musical titled ''Jubilee: Cavalcade of the Negro Theater'' specifically for the exposition. Bontemps, the poet
Fenton Johnson
John Fenton Johnson is an American writer and professor of English and LGBT Studies at the University of Arizona.
Life
He was born ninth of nine children into a Kentucky whiskey-making family with a strong storytelling tradition.
In February ...
, and several others working under the auspices of the
Illinois Writers' Project, produced a commemorative 96-page African-American history book called ''
Cavalcade of the American Negro''.
Other musical segments were a performance by
Duke Ellington and his orchestra, as well as a
swing performance of ''
The Chimes of Normandy
''Les cloches de Corneville'' (''The Bells of Corneville'', sometimes known in English as ''The Chimes of Normandy'') is an opéra-comique in three acts, composed by Robert Planquette to a libretto by Louis Clairville and Charles Gabet.
The ...
''.
Participants
Organizations
Businesses
Dioramas
The exhibit had 33 five-feet wide
dioramas
A diorama is a replica of a scene, typically a three-dimensional full-size or miniature model, sometimes enclosed in a glass showcase for a museum. Dioramas are often built by hobbyists as part of related hobbies such as military vehicle mode ...
held in the "Court of Dioramas" hall, they were made from wood, plaster and
masonite
Masonite is a type of hardboard, a kind of engineered wood, which is made of steam-cooked and pressure-molded wood fibers in a process patented by William H. Mason. It is also called Quartrboard, Isorel, hernit, karlit, torex, treetex, and ...
, showcasing African American contributions and events of historical significance, ranging from
ancient Egypt through
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
.
Commercial artist
Charles C. Dawson directed the creation of the dioramas.
The temporary exhibit was only on display for the roughly two months the exhibition ran and inspired local teachers in improving teaching African American history.
A list of the dioramas in the names at the time of showing, included:
Of the original 33 dioramas, 13 of them were lost and
Tuskegee University
Tuskegee University (Tuskegee or TU), formerly known as the Tuskegee Institute, is a private, historically black land-grant university in Tuskegee, Alabama. It was founded on Independence Day in 1881 by the state legislature.
The campus was de ...
, through Dawson, an alumni who was started teaching at the institution, acquired the remaining 20 dioramas from the
State of Illinois
Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...
.
They were placed at the University's old
George Washington Carver Museum The George Washington Carver Museum may refer to several different things. These include:
*The George Washington Carver Museum in Tuskegee, Alabama, founded in 1941 by George Washington Carver
*George Washington Carver Museum and Cultural Center i ...
, then moved to the main library. Due to their state of disrepair, they had arrived at Tuskegee at "60% destroyed",
they were stored away from public view for decades.
Tuskegee's Legacy Museum set up a new exhibit, "20 Dioramas: Brightly-Lit Windows, Magically Different", using the twenty dioramas to "demonstrate the rich past of African-Americans".
The museum curator, Dr. Jontyle Robinson, used the conservation work to "improve diversity in the field of conservation", since "
ly 1 to 2% of conservators are African American."
Restoring a single diorama costs between $25,000 to $30,000 in 2018.
''CBS Sunday Morning'' correspondent
Rita Braver
Rita Braver (born April 12, 1948) is an American television news correspondent, currently working with CBS News, and who is best known for her investigative journalism of White House scandals such as the Iran-Contra affair.
__NOTOC__ Biography
...
did a story on the dioramas, with the intention of bringing awareness and hope that the segment would help in unearthing the lost 13.
Legacy
In 2015, the African American Cultural Center of the
University of Illinois at Chicago
The University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) is a public research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its campus is in the Near West Side community area, adjacent to the Chicago Loop. The second campus established under the University of Illinois ...
curated an exhibition of the Exposition "showcas
ng..objects, images and texts from the landmark...Exposition."
See also
*
The Exhibit of American Negroes-sociological display within the Palace of Social Economy at the
1900 World's Fair in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
.
References
Notes
: 1.Not including the 230 "
Negro Newspapers".
External links
*
Official program and guidebook - hosted by the
Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...
.
Cavalcade of the American NegroInformation hosted by the
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library ...
on a book of the same name produced by the Illinois
Writers' Project of the
WPA
WPA may refer to:
Computing
*Wi-Fi Protected Access, a wireless encryption standard
*Windows Product Activation, in Microsoft software licensing
* Wireless Public Alerting (Alert Ready), emergency alerts over LTE in Canada
* Windows Performance An ...
, which became "one of the more important contributions" and "includes a useful description of all the exhibits at the exposition."
{{African-American Festivals, state=collapsed
1940 festivals
1940 in Illinois
African-American festivals
African-American history between emancipation and the civil rights movement
World's fairs in Chicago
American Civil War anniversaries
African-American history in Chicago