The African American Cultural Center of Long Beach’s newest exhibit chronicles a difficult, but essential piece of American history. Though its contents consist of trauma, bondage and despicable cruelty, “The Middle Passage Experience,” is both a testament to the undeniable strength it took to persevere, and the importance of remembering the past.
The Middle Passage is the route that over 12.5 million Africans had to take aboard ships from Africa to America. These tight-packed floating prisons were run by a cruel regime and subjected Africans to inhumane conditions. As a result, over one million people died along the Middle Passage.
The exhibit was curated by Sharon Diggs-Jackson, a Long Beach-born-and-raised historian, genealogist and board member for the African American Cultural Center of Long Beach. The contents have been put on display two times before, once at the Cultural Center in 2003 and again in Downtown Long Beach in 2004.
Diggs-Jackson felt it was necessary to bring back the Middle Passage Experience exhibit this year so people get the chance “to really talk about our history as Americans,” she said.
“To be able to understand the full breadth; the good and the bad, because all of that has gone into making us the nation that we are, and it’s an important topic especially today … This current climate we’re living in, there are some that would like to erase our history completely, but I’m a historian and I believe in telling things the way that they were. It’s not my job to rewrite or to remarket history, my job is to tell it as it happened,” Diggs-Jackson said.
Attendees will be taken through the perilous journey that over 12 million Africans took in bondage that led them to North, South and Central America. Through physical artifacts, videos, images, informational boards and docents, the Cultural Center will aim to tell the entire story of Africans — not just slavery.
Although the Middle Passage is the central component of the exhibit, the story doesn’t begin or end there. Attendees will learn about daily life and civilization in Africa in the 1800s, a successful and thriving continent.
“The history that we’ve been led to believe is that Africa was this uncivilized nation and there was this need to go get these people and to bring them into civilization,” Diggs-Jackson said. “But the truth of the matter is the continent of Africa is the cradle of life, it’s the cradle of technology. There were scientists, there were farmers, astronomers. It was an established society.”
Historians have acknowledged that Africa is the birthplace of civilization as we know it, and many staples of life, such as the formation of states, engineering and architecture, originated there.
According to the Jim Crow Museum, West Africa had complex political structures that spanned large kingdoms such as Benin and Kongo, as well as villages that came to agreements which decided the governing powers. In the centuries before slavery became the dominant trade, Africans were known for their skill in medicine, mathematics and astronomy, as well as crafting gold, ivory and bronze goods.
The exhibit shows how certain peoples in Africa used to live and items they made such as weapons, musical instruments and mudcloth (cloth made with fermented mud). There’s also a large map of Africa and over 100 different villages and societies that used to exist.
Docents will also teach participants about how slavery impacted Africa; how Africa lost its youngest, strongest and brightest citizens for generations, and how its local economy was destroyed.
The Cultural Center will then take attendees through a corridor showing them what the Middle Passage journey was like, through images of how Africans had to travel on the ships to artifacts such as chains that were used. Images show how crammed the ships were, artifacts show how those aboard ships were intimidated and abused, and accompanying boards ask attendees to imagine being separated from their home, thrown amongst strangers, never to return.
“You can’t just rewrite history because it serves your purpose. We all benefit from the truth and we need to learn from the good lessons as well as the bad, and slavery is truly a black spot in our history,” Diggs-Jackson said. “We cannot rewrite history and we need to, as Americans, be able to own up to the good as well as the bad, because we learn from history … History right now is such a controversial subject and we see what’s happening in our country, of teachers and educators being prohibited from even talking about certain subjects, so it seemed like it’s the right time to tell this story.”
The exhibit ends on what life was like for Africans once they became enslaved in North America. Displays show how American Christians used parts of the bible to justify slavery, and panels tell how auctions were conducted. This part of the story takes time to debunk common misconceptions about slavery, like that it only existed in Southern states or that all Africans were or became Christian.
Attendees will also learn about the ingenuitive ways that slaves found ways to live by creating secret meeting places to teach each other how to read and write, and by passing down their various traditions and culture even as America tried to erase it.
“While the story is traumatic, we try to leave people with the thought that — to have an understanding of the strength that had to have resided in those individuals who were put on that journey and then were able to survive, and once they got here into the United States, went on to make a life for themselves and to make a life for people like me who are fourth generation, just four generations removed from slavery,” Diggs-Jackson said. “Ending on the hope that in spite of all of that, these people were survivors.
Diggs-Jackson said she felt it was important to end with the story of strength especially for the African American audience, “so when we start to feel like life is hard and there are struggles, that we call on that same DNA and energy and recognize that we are survivors, we are conquerors.”
Local educators who are interested in taking their students to the exhibit can schedule a private educational tour, so students can learn about this part of American history “in a way that adds value.”
If attendees feel inspired to learn more about their history, Diggs-Jackson has another exhibit across the street at the Historical Society of Long Beach. This smaller exhibit is about early Long Beach and the stories of the first African Americans who settled here. Residents can learn about the first Black church, the first Black families in the city and more.
Diggs-Jackson said her main focus for the next few years, as the City prepares to create a Historically Black Cultural District, is to compile the stories of all the people who made Black Long Beach.
“Long Beach has an amazing story,” she said. “There’ve been amazing people, many of them are my elders I was blessed to grow up with so that’s part of what we’re committed to over the next couple years.”
The Middle Passage Exhibit Experience exhibit will be on display at the African American Cultural Center of Long Beach (4321 Atlantic Ave.) on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and on Thursdays and Fridays from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. through March 1.
A special Sunday viewing will take place Feb. 16 from noon to 4 p.m., with light refreshments and discussions.
To schedule a private or educational tour, call 562-426-2670.