Gantt Center exhibit celebrates African-American contributions to U.S.
“America I AM: The African American Imprint,” the touring exhibition at the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture, is famed author, radio and TV host Tavis Smiley’s symbolic response to noted black scholar W.E.B. Du Bois’ rhetorical question:
“Would America have been America without her Negro People?”
“The answer to that question is ‘no,’ but you’d be amazed at the number of African-Americans who don’t know how rich that history is in every field of human endeavor,” said Smiley in a recent phone interview from his Los Angeles office.
Smiley, who hosts the “Tavis Smiley” public television talk show on PBS and co-hosts the Public Radio International show “Smiley & West” with Dr. Cornel West, is the presenter and creative force behind the exhibition. It includes more that 200 artifacts and celebrates nearly 500 years of African-American contributions to the history and culture of the United States.
Smiley said one of his personal highlights of the exhibition is “The Doors of No Return” from the Cape Coast in Ghana, which enslaved Africans marched through in shackles and chains to board ships to the New World.
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