Chicago, IL. (10 April 2008)—- The DuSable Museum of African American History will present the most comprehensive exhibition to ever explore the issues of the Vietnam War from an African American perspective. Soul Soldiers: African Americans and the Vietnam Era, which tells the story of the impact of the Vietnam War on African American life and culture by examining both Vietnam and the Civil Rights Movement. The exhibition, developed by the Senator John Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania will open on Friday, April 18, 2008 and continue through Sunday, July 27, 2008 at the Museum which is located at 740 East 56th Place (57th Street and South Cottage Grove Avenue) in Chicago.
In April of 1967, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke at Riverside Church in New York City and outlined his opposition to the continuing crisis in South East Asia. One month later, Time Magazine published correspondent Wallace Terry’s groundbreaking articles based on interviews of African-American GI’s in Vietnam. These two events helped frame the African American social and political perspective of the 1960s that went beyond civil rights. The exhibition demonstrates that Vietnam was no isolated battleground; it was a crucible for African-American soldiers’ emerging political and cultural consciousness.
SOUL SOLDIERS explores the issues, actions, reactions, and expressions of life and culture of African Americans as they were impacted by Civil Rights and the war in Vietnam.
SOUL SOLDIERS showcases nearly 200 artifacts, including a number of key items from veterans, such as soldiers’ rucksacks, uniforms and dog tags; historic articles on the life of African American soldiers from Time Magazine, Ebony Magazine and the Pittsburgh Courier; nurse uniforms and photographs from the era; armed forces recruitment posters and other propaganda materials; and soldiers’ diaries and letters back home.
This multimedia exhibition will also show how the Vietnam War played a critical role in African American popular culture by helping to shape the soul, jazz, rock and gospel genres in the 1960s and 1970s. A number of audio stops are featured throughout the exhibition that include such Black Power anthems as Say It Loud (I’m Black & I’m Proud), by James Brown, and What’s Going On, by Marvin Gaye. In addition, a 13- minute original documentary The Soul of Vietnam is also included.
More than a dozen photographs from Wallace Terry, former Vietnam correspondent for Time Magazine and author of Bloods: An Oral History of the Vietnam War by Black Veterans, will also be on display.
Nine prominent Vietnam Veteran artists produced a variety of mixed media artwork that is included in Soul Soldiers. The materials are on loan from the National Vietnam Veterans Art Museum in Chicago.
Soul Soldiers: African Americans and the Vietnam Era is made possible in part by the Chicago Park District, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, 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 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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