The DuSable Museum Turning The Past Into A Virtual Reality

By: Nik Pharrell | February 13, 2022

There are many museums in the city of Chicago, but only one that celebrates the lives of African Americans. The DuSable Museum, originally known as the Ebony Museum, was founded by Margaret and Charlie Burroughs in 1961 in their Bronzeville home on Chicago’s southside. The museum is in Washington Park between Morgan Dr and 57th Place. In honor of embarking on their 60th anniversary, the museum has added new exhibits: Freedom, Resistance and the Journey Toward Equality, Un(re)solved, and The March.

Freedom, Resistance, and the Journey Toward Equality

This exhibition take visitors on a journey through the African American experience, addressing several critical periods throughout history. The visitor will start their journey at the Transatlantic Slave Trade and journey through the slave system in the Americas. Dr. Kim Dunlaney, Director of Education and Programs says:

"This exhibit allows different cultures to see Black people other than what’s been painted in the news. You get to see the whole story, and it humanized Black people and the Black experience in America."

Visitors will then move through Reconstruction, the Great Migration, and view the height of the Jim Crow era of racial segregation in the United States. The exhibit will open your eyes past the headlines as you embark on the truth of the Civil Rights Movement and the Black Power Movement as they unfolded throughout the 1960s and 1970s. You were learning about the many setbacks and achievements recorded in the 80s and 90s before experiencing one of the grown-breaking days in American history of the 21st Century, the election of Barack Obama as the first African-American President.

Resistance at Sea featured takes you back to the time period between 1526 and the mid-1800s, approximately 12 million Africans were kidnapped and transported to the New World through the transatlantic slave trade. To discourage the slaves from escaping the “slavers” imposed various physical retrains up individuals, including shackles like these:

Slavers also inflicted brutal punishments carried out in public as a deterrent to others considering resistance or escape with iron collars, and spiked arms that made it impossible to rest.

This exhibition includes 200 objects, archival videos, artifacts and images with the advancement of design and interpretation techniques.

TIME Studios - "The March"

With new state of the art technology The DuSable Museum has used virtual reality to showcase The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The museum partnered with TIME Studios, actor and producer pair Viola Davis and Julius Tennon, to literally take you to 1963 Washington, D.C. where Martin Luther King Jr. gave his iconic "I Have a Dream" speech.

As you walk into the exhibit families can walk through the events of the Civil Rights Movement, from the Montgomery Bus boycott to the protest in Birmingham. This experience includes a 100-minute VR presentation where you can walk around and see people sitting on the grass, walk close to the edge of the reflecting pool, Dr. King comes to focus and the visitors will find themselves face to face standing in front of King as he gives his speech. Raymond Ward, Event Coordinator and Experiences says:

"We decided to partner with Mia Tramz, TIME's editorial director of Immersive Experiences, who had the vision to make Dr. King appear life-sized. She wanted to give people a different perspective of the March on Washington where visitors could literally be put into it. With us being a museum of African American history, she figured this would be the perfect location, and we were excited to partner with TIME studios, Viola Davis and her husband, Julius Tennon."

To create this experience more than 300 people where utilized from donned suit actors to recreate the look of people walking in the March, educators, technologists, and artist. The King estate allowed the reproduction and likeness of Martin Luther King Jr. during the speech. This exhibit will run from now until November. Visitors will need a timed ticket as only four people are allowed in the exhibit at a time.

The DuSable Museum sheds light on the plights of the African American community and the importance of equality for all. To stop racism, we must first educate. Located below is a map that highlights all of the different types of museums found around the city.

To find out more about this museum, other exhibits and events visit dusablemuseum.org.