SIGHTSEERS
The Henry Ford Museum
by Randy Karr

The Henry Ford, hailed as America's Greatest History Attraction, has launched a new permanent exhibit at the Henry Ford Museum. With Liberty and Justice for All opened on January 16, 2006, the anniversary of Martin Luther King's birthday.

From the revolutionary war through the civil rights movement, the exhibit explores the defining moments of American civil liberties, by bringing together a collection of artifacts that encapsulates each of four movements - the Independence Movement, the Antislavery Movement, the Women's Suffrage Movement and the Civil Rights Movement. These movements spanned more than two centuries and were instrumental in defining the civil liberties that Americans enjoy today.

Several artifacts have been displayed at the museum for some time. Items that will be familiar to many include the chair in which President Abraham Lincoln sat when he was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theater, the bus Rosa Parks rode when she refused to move to the "colored" section and the portable camp bed used by George Washington during his victory tour of Revolutionary War battlefields.

Ninety-five percent of the exhibit, however, showcases artifacts that the museum has never displayed. Visitors will see one of only three, hand-written copies of the 13th Amendment that President Abraham Lincoln signed, and memorabilia from the 1963 March on Washington, where Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his legendary "I Have a Dream" speech.

With Liberty and Justice for All is separated into four sections: Independence, Freedom and Union, Votes For Women and Civil Rights.

In the Independence section, visitors view displays recalling America's revolutionary heroes and an original copy of the 1765 Stamp Act. As well, there is a 1770 engraving of the Boston Massacre by Paul Revere and a 1776 copy of Common Sense, Thomas Paine's pamphlet calling for the union of the American colonies.

Other Independence era exhibits include Thomas Jefferson's portable writing desk and a speaker's chair from the original House of Representatives in Philadelphia's Independence Hall. Before leaving, visitors can test their constitutional IQ at several touch-screen kiosks.

The Freedom and Union section begins with a fascinating sound and light show dramatizing the Christiana Revolt, a little known slave rebellion that took place in 1851. This uprising resulted in the death of a plantation owner by one of his slaves. The killing served as a warning that slaves would no longer rely only on restrained forms of resistance against their owners, like working slowly, damaging property and pretending they were ill or injured.

Following this, visitors listen to a Frederick Douglass speech and to Civil War era songs, including The Battle Hymn of the Republic, and I Wish I Was in Dixie. An 1845 edition of Douglass' Narrative of Life as an American Slave and an 1852 edition of Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin can be viewed. Before leaving the Freedom and Union section, visitors see the rocking chair Lincoln sat in when assassinated during a theatrical performance of Our American Cousin.

The Votes For Women section brings to life the early 1900s suffragette movement. Exhibits tell the true story of how Alice Paul and Lucy Burns, two defiant yet determined suffragettes, put their lives at risk to help American women win the right to vote.

Visitors learn, as they sit in a jail cell, how these two women shaped the future of America by viewing clips from the film, Iron Jawed Angels. This HBO movie tells how Alice Paul and Lucy Burns were arrested and taken to jail for picketing at the White House. Undeterred, they continued the fight for women's voting rights by staging a hunger strike. To quell the strike, jail officials pried their mouths open, inserted a metal device and force fed them.

A touch-screen kiosk gives visitors an opportunity to discover how fervently they would have stood up for the right of women to vote and then compare their resolve with that of the suffragettes.

Elsewhere, visitors can view an 1870 suffrage newspaper, The Revolution, edited by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a suffrage flag supporting Alice Paul's advocacy for the Nineteenth Amendment giving women the right to vote and other items relating to the Equal Rights Amendment and the Women's Liberation Movement.

With Liberty and Justice for All culminates with the Civil Rights section. The exhibits here chronicle segregation in schools, transportation and public facilities. A Ku Klux Klan outfit and the 'White' and 'Colored' waiting room signs jolt visitors as to the harsh reality of legally sanctioned segregation in America.

The iconic highlight here is the Rosa Parks Bus. Her actions on this Montgomery, Alabama, bus set in motion events that subsequently gave birth to America's civil rights movement and brought national prominence to Martin Luther King.

Other exhibits include scrapbook pages regarding Rosa Parks' actions during the Montgomery Bus Boycott, a touch-screen kiosk where visitors edit historic news clips to create their own version of the Selma-Montgomery March and film clips of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech.

Dr. King's speech sums up the indisputable message of this exhibit - that our dreams for liberty and freedom require that "our nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed…that all men are created equal."

For more information on upcoming happenings at America's Greatest History Attraction, visit The Henry Ford at: http://www.thehenryford.com.

© 2006 Randy Karr