Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture

Merry #Christmas! What showed up under your tree? 🎁🎄⁣ ⁣ 🎥 (detail) Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Pearl Bowser.

On #ChristmasEve 1854, Harriet Tubman returned to her Eastern Shore Maryland home to emancipate her brothers Ben, Henry, and Robert from slavery. Tubman had heard rumors of plans to sell the men the day after Christmas, so she sent word to her brothers through Jacob Jackson, a free African American man. During the slavery era, Christmas became a popular time for freedom seekers to plan escapes because enslaved people often received travel passes to visit family who lived on other properties during the holiday. Once they received travel passes, they were not expected to show up again until well after the holiday. Tubman wrote in code: “tell my brothers to be always watching unto prayer and when the good old ship of Zion comes along, to be ready to step on board.” The brothers had travel passes to visit their parents, Ben Sr. and Rit Ross, for Christmas. 3 others, including Ben’s fiancée, would join the group on their journey North to freedom. They traveled more than 100 miles, arriving at William Still’s Anti-Slavery office in Philadelphia on Dec. 29, 1854. #APeoplesJourney #ANationsStory 📸 Courtesy of MPI/Getty Images.

Anastácia has guided Brazilians past and present. Originally depicted as an enslaved African person silenced by an iron torture device, her image has traversed history, moving from illustrating the plight of the enslaved to representing the resilience of contemporary Afro-Brazilians. Although little is known about Anastácia as a historical figure, her cultural impact is undeniable. Every day, people of the Afro-Catholic and Umbanda faiths pray to Anastácia. Through shrines and prayer cards, they evoke her spirit for protection and call on her strength in turbulent times. Learn more in our first international traveling exhibition, “In Slavery's Wake: Making Black Freedom in the World,” on view through June 8, 2025: https://s.si.edu/3VHimJo 📸 Monument to the voice of Anastácia, Yhuri Cruz, 2019.

In the event of a government shutdown, our museum will remain OPEN through at least Thursday, Dec. 26. Please note that we are closed on Dec. 25. Visit our website for updates nmaahc.si.edu.

#OnThisDay in 1956, the community of Montgomery, Alabama, voted unanimously to end its 381-day bus boycott. Rosa Parks's arrest ignited the boycott after she rejected a bus driver's order to relinquish her seat in the "colored section" to a white passenger. The Montgomery Improvement Association coordinated the boycott, which began in December 1955. Riders organized carpools or walked to get around. The city of Montgomery did not budge and lost 75% of its ridership during the protest. The boycott ended when the federal ruling of Browder v. Gayle took effect, leading to a Supreme Court decision declaring that Alabama and Montgomery's laws segregating buses were unconstitutional. In a speech delivered to about 2,500 people on the day that the boycott ended, Martin Luther King, Jr. urged the Negro citizens of Montgomery to return to the buses the next day on a non-segregated basis. During the speech, he said, "As we return to the buses, let us be loving enough to turn an enemy into a friend. We must now move from protest to reconciliation." In 'Stride Toward Freedom,' King's 1958 memoir of the boycott, he declared the real meaning of the Montgomery bus boycott to be the power of growing self-respect to animate the struggle for civil rights. #APeoplesJourney

Mampuján is one of 20 historical Palenques—Maroon settlements—formed by escapees in Colombia. The community has faced violence throughout its existence, from colonial extermination campaigns to a devastating attack by paramilitary groups in 2000. In the aftermath of the 2000 attack, women from Mampuján formed a collective to work on matters of repair. Drawing on Afro-Caribbean storytelling and local textile art traditions, they create tapestries that document their history and the atrocities their community has suffered, past and present. These tapestries help heal and give voice to Mampuján’s residents. Learn more in our first international traveling exhibition, “In Slavery's Wake: Making Black Freedom in the World,” on view through June 8, 2025: https://s.si.edu/3VHimJo #InSlaverysWake #APeoplesJourney 📸 (detail and full view) Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Juana Alicia Ruiz Hernandez, Mujeres Tejedoras de mampujan, © Women Weavers of Mampujan.

From the mid-19th century until World War I, European colonization and African resistance spurred massive displacement and the capture and sale of vulnerable people across Western Africa. Marème Diarra was swept up in the wake of that instability. Captured in Mali and enslaved in Mauritania, she bravely escaped slavery with her three children. They trekked over 200 miles to the French colonial city of Saint-Louis, Senegal, where slavery was legally abolished. Diarra settled in Diel Mbam, a haven for newcomers whose rights remained restricted in Saint-Louis. Learn more in our first international traveling exhibition, “In Slavery's Wake: Making Black Freedom in the World,” on view through June 8, 2025: https://s.si.edu/3VHimJo #InSlaverysWake #APeoplesJourney 📸 Portrait of Marème Diarra, by Akonga, 2023. Chérif Dahir Diop.

#OnThisDay in 1865, the 13th Amendment, which outlawed slavery, was officially adopted into the U.S. Constitution—246 years after enslaved Africans landed in Port Comfort in Virginia. The 13th Amendment stated that “neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for a crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” The 13th Amendment was intended to complete what free and enslaved African Americans, abolitionists, and President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 set in motion. Yet the constitutional outlawing of slavery was only the beginning of securing complete freedom and equal rights for African Americans. As generations of civil rights struggles would prove, the enduring challenge would be to dismantle the systemic racism that had justified and supported slavery in the South and restricted the freedom of all Black people throughout the country. Learn more on our Searchable Museum: https://s.si.edu/3rf3QsO #APeoplesJourney #ANationsStory 📸 Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Today, we remember poet and activist Nikki Giovanni. Giovanni's literary works are part of our museum's collection and have been on display in several galleries. These literary gems include Black Feeling, Black Talk (1968); Black Judgement (1968); Black Feeling, Black Talk, Black Judgement (1970); and The Women and The Men (1975), which exemplify Giovanni's literary contributions to the Black Arts Movement with themes of liberation, resilience, unity, and beauty. After promoting Black Judgement at the Birdland Jazz Club in New York, Giovanni received coverage from the New York Times, inviting national attention that helped contribute to the success of her publication and her imminent rise as a rebel and loving poet. Nikki Giovanni was the people's poet, singing in the forest, embodying love, patience, and listening: https://s.si.edu/49EUnjk 📸 1. 2. Photographs by Moneta Sleet Jr. Johnson Publishing Company Archive. Courtesy J. Paul Getty Trust and Smithsonian

In 1881, Brazilian workers forced to transport captive Africans for sale aboard small fishing boats called “jangadas” collectively refused. Organized by Francisco Nascimento, a fisherman of Indigenous and African descent, the jangadeiros’ strike effectively ended the slave trade in Ceará, Brazil, and ushered in an era of abolition driven by common people. Learn more in our first international traveling exhibition, “In Slavery's Wake: Making Black Freedom in the World,” on view through June 8, 2025: https://s.si.edu/3VHimJo #InSlaverysWake #APeoplesJourney 📸 Illustration of Francisco Nascimento and the jangadeiros of Ceará, Brazil, 1884. Acervo da Biblioteca do Senado Federal.