By Rodney Wolfenbarger

An artifact from the Berea College Appalachian Artifacts Collection is making its way across the nation as part of a traveling museum exhibit titled America I AM: The African American Imprint.  The exhibition, which debuted at Philadelphia’s National Constitution Center on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday in mid-January, celebrates 400 years of African American contributions to the nation through artifacts, documents, multimedia, photos, and music.

The four-year touring exhibition endeavors to bring together Americans of all cultures, ages, and backgrounds to celebrate and further understand the essential role of African Americans in shaping American history and culture across four core areas: economic, socio-political, cultural, and spiritual.  Twelve galleries encompassing more than 12,000 square feet will take visitors through a journey that starts with the beginnings of the nation and continues through the present-day inauguration of the first African American president of the United States.

“From the arrival of the first Africans in Jamestown to the election of President Barack Obama, America I AM: The African American Imprint explores and celebrates the trials and triumphs that illustrate the unique journey of African Americans,” said broadcaster Tavis Smiley, who is presenting the exhibition.  “This exhibition serves as a powerful reminder of the diverse contributions that African Americans have made to the American mosaic while underscoring that each of us as human beings can leave an imprint.”  An interactive component of the exhibition will allow visitors to leave their own video “imprints,” a collection that will grow throughout the tour with the potential to become the largest recorded oral history project in U.S. history.

Developed in partnership with The Smiley Group, Inc., and organized by Arts and Exhibitions International and Cincinnati Museum Center, the exhibit features more than 250 extraordinary artifacts culled from every period of U.S. history.  Included in that number is a 19th century wood plane that belonged to John Henry Jackson, an early black student at Berea College, distinctive among institutions of higher learning as the first interracial and coeducational college in the South.  Jackson used the tool to plane the floors of Fairchild Hall during its construction between 1871 and 1873.  Fairchild, the oldest building on Berea’s historic campus, was the first brick building constructed in the Madison County, Kentucky, area.  John Jackson graduated from Berea College in 1874 and later became the first president of Kentucky State University.

The Berea College artifact appears alongside other such poignant pieces as the typewriter Alex Haley used to write Roots, the door key and stool from the Birmingham jail cell that held Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and personal effects of Phillis Wheatley, Frederick Douglass, Malcolm X, and Muhammad Ali. 

Exhibition organizers have worked with some of the most notable scholars in the field to develop America I AM, one of the broadest exhibitions on this subject ever mounted.  Among others, advisory panel members include Cornel West, professor of religion and African American studies at Princeton University; Henry Louis Gates Jr., the director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and American Research at Harvard University; and Lawrence J. Pijeaux Jr., president and CEO of the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute and immediate past president of the Association of African American Museums.  John Fleming, a 1968 Berea College graduate and current president of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, serves as executive producer of the exhibition.  America I AM is made possible by Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., its presenting sponsor.