Since the start of their experience in the Americas, Black people have been defined by travel, displacement, and resistance. Whether in the horrors of the Middle Passage or the rebellion of Maroon communities made up of escaped slaves, travel has meant much—and something much more—for Africans in the Americas. This exhibition, our first as we celebrate The New York Public Library’s 125th anniversary and the Schomburg Center’s 95th, explores over a century of travel. Moving from the Great Migration of African Americans north and west at the start of the twentieth century to the restrictions and resistances of travel in the Jim Crow South and the Jane Crow North, Traveling While Black examines a history of travel, from those who found themselves exiles within their own country down to the pilgrims and pleasure seekers of our time. Curated by Kevin Young, Director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

Open now. Ends February 1st, 2021.Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Exhibition Hall