“FORGOTTEN ROOTS: MUSLIMS IN EARLY AMERICA THROUGH THE 20TH CENTURY”
Groundbreaking Exhibition To Open At The DuSable Museum July 9, 2008
Chicago, IL. (3 July 2008) —- The DuSable Museum of African American History will present the exhibition “Forgotten Roots: Muslims in Early America Through the 20th Century,” which examines the history of America through her Islamic lens. The exhibition, organized by Collections & Stories of American Muslims will open on July 9, 2008 and continue through October 1, 2008 at the Museum, which is located at 740 East 56th Place (57th Street and South Cottage Grove Avenue) in Chicago.
The exhibition highlights America’s rich Islamic history and diversity along with the many different cultures that make-up America’s Islamic Communities in two sections. Section One brings together for study and display, an extraordinary range of examples of historical documents, personalities, stories, and photographs from the 1600’s to the 19th century. Section Two “The Untold Story: Muslims of the 20th Century,” examines the history of early Muslim leaders from the 1900’s to the 1950’s and the early Muslim communities at the turn of the century.
Muslims of differing backgrounds now dwell in the United States and Islam is very much a part of the American religious landscape. A sizable African-American community commits in both real and unassasilable ways to America and to Islam. “Forgotten Roots: Muslims in Early America Through the 20th Century,” is the first of its kind to display so many details and essentials connecting Muslims to early America in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. It acknowledges the literacy, religious scholarship, and high culture of some slaves in America, and it explores the significant role of religion and memory in the everyday lives of Muslim heritage. Included in the exhibition are samples of pages filled with Arabic characters written by Charno, Bilali Muhammad, Omar Ibn Sayyid and Ayub Ben Suleiman, a slave from the Senegambia. Ayub like the character from “Roots,” Kunta Kinte, studied the Quran and other holy books. There are also copies of the writings of Abdur Rahman Ibn Ibrahim Sori of Guinea, who served as a slave in Natchez, Mississippi for forty years before his manumission on October 10, 1828.
What is remarkable about these texts is the fact that even during slavery times these people publicly revealed their ability to write and to express their feelings and that men and women who were slaves from West Africa were in many cases literate in Quranic Arabic, which was not widely talked about in the slave narratives.
“Forgotten Roots: Muslims in Early America Through the 20th Century,” was organized by Washington-based author and historian Amir N. Muhammad, and Collections & Stories of American Muslims, Inc. The Chicago presentation is made possible in part by the Chicago Park District, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Alphawood Foundation, the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency and United Airlines, the official airline of the DuSable Museum.
Admission to the DuSable Museum is $3 for adults; $2 for students and senior citizens; $1 for children ages 6 through 12 and children under the age of 6 are admitted free. Sundays are FREE TO ALL courtesy of “Bank of America FREE SUNDAYS.” The Museum is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10:00 AM until 5:00 PM and Sunday from 12:00 NOON until 5:00 PM.
The DuSable Museum of African American History, the oldest institutions of its kind in the country, has been dedicated to the collection, preservation, interpretation and dissemination of the history and culture of Africans and Americans of African descent for 46 years. For more information on the Museum and its programs, please call (773) 947-0600 or you may visit our website at http://www.dusablemuseum.org.
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