TriceEdneyWire.com — Ten years after then-First Lady Michelle Obama famously told the Democratic National Convention: “I wake up every morning in a house that was built by slaves,” a new exhibit at the African American Civil War Museum is telling another chapter of her family’s American story.
The newly renovated museum reopened Sept. 30 on historic U Street in Northwest Washington, D.C., featuring ‘From Slavery to the White House,’ an exhibit tracing Obama’s family history from formerly enslaved ancestors and Black Civil War soldiers to the White House.
Two of Obama’s ancestors served in the United States Colored Troops during the Civil War. Ceasar Cohen, her great-great-grandfather, served in the 128th Regiment, while Jerry Sutton, the stepfather of her great-grandmother, served in the 55th Regiment.
Their service provides a personal connection to the museum’s larger mission of documenting the approximately 209,000 Black soldiers who served in the Union Army.
“People will come in here. They will see the Michelle Obama feature exhibit. They will see freedom. And they will see enslavement,” said Dr. Frank Smith, founder and executive director of the museum.
Smith said the exhibit illustrates the transformation of Black Americans from slavery and exclusion from citizenship to participation at the highest levels of American government.
The exhibit follows Obama’s life from her childhood on Chicago’s South Side through her education at Harvard Law School, her marriage to Barack Obama and ultimately her years as first lady.
“We have 209,000 names of soldiers on that wall out there,” Smith said of the nearby African American Civil War Memorial. “It’s just a lot of names until you find one of them that tells the whole story.”
The Michelle Obama exhibit is part of a broader renovation of the museum, located at 1925 Vermont Ave. NW in Washington’s Shaw neighborhood.
The museum’s main exhibit, ‘Glorious March to Liberty: Civil War to Civil Rights,’ tells the story of enslaved Black Americans who took up arms and fought for their freedom during the Civil War.
Dawn Chitty, the museum’s educational director, said the refreshed museum also includes approximately 200 new artifacts.
“It will be seen in a light it has not been seen before,” Chitty said.
Smith, a former D.C. City Council member, founded the museum and memorial more than three decades ago to ensure that the role of Black soldiers in winning the Civil War and ending slavery would not be forgotten.
“When the Civil War started, African Americans had no pathway to citizenship in the United States,” Smith said during the museum expansion’s 2019 groundbreaking. He noted that President Abraham Lincoln eventually enlisted approximately 200,000 Black soldiers in the Union Army.
“The nation paid no attention to these soldiers until we built a monument to them,” Smith said.
The $8 million museum expansion and renovation faced several delays, including funding challenges and the COVID-19 pandemic.
As work progressed, a 600-pound, six-foot-tall bronze statue of President Abraham Lincoln signing the Emancipation Proclamation was unveiled outside the museum last year. It faces the memorial across the street, where three Black soldiers stand surrounded by a wall bearing the names of the Black troops who served the Union.
The museum also contributes to the continuing revitalization of Washington’s historic U Street corridor, once a center of Black business and culture. The area is bordered by Howard University and includes landmarks such as Ben’s Chili Bowl.
Smith hopes visitors leave the renovated museum with more than an understanding of slavery. He wants them to understand the role Black Americans played in securing their own freedom.
“When we talk and think about slavery, we always think of a lot of suffering and a lot of crying, a lot of beatings and a lot of hard work,” Smith said.
But the Michelle Obama family story, he said, is also about people taking control of their futures.
“I think this, the Michelle Obama story, is about two [soldiers] who took control of their lives and did something great for themselves and for this country.”
