HOMECOMING: African American Family History in Georgia

Posted on By october

February 3 – April 28, 2013
On Loan from the Auburn Avenue Research Library

This exhibition documents and pays homage to an incredible achievement – the survival of kinship ties and family pride among black people through the horrific experience of slavery.  Up until 1978 when the project that collected these photographs was launched, there had been relatively little research on the African
American family.

Two years earlier, in 1976, the country had celebrated its Bicentennial. Coincidentally, at the same time that Americans as a whole were reflecting on their country’s roots, Alex Haley published a book that would forever change how African Americans perceived their own.  Roots reminded everyone that their family histories were richer and more complex than their recent memories and sparked an unprecedented interest in genealogy. Here in Georgia, this interest gave rise to the African-American Family History Association.  In 1978, the Association began planning an exhibit on the history of Black families in Georgia as part of its goal “to engage the public in the research and appreciation of the family history of a people whose heritage has generally been unrecognized.”

The project developed by Carole Merritt, focused on the period from 1750 to the twentieth century in an attempt to get a general view of the changes that had taken place in black family life as well as the “continuities” that had endured over 200 years.  More than 100 Georgia families participated, contributing family histories, photographs, and other documents.  The first“Homecoming” exhibition was held in 1982 at the main branch of the Atlanta Public Library.  The photographs selected for this current exhibition date from the late 1800’s to the mid 1960’s and chronicle moments in family life that we all recognize – birth, childhood, courtship, marriage,
and death.

 

For African-Americans, home has had many meanings.  As a place of origin, it  was Africa; as a place of birth and residence, America.  For many, home has been Georgia.   In the sense of family, home has transcended place and circumstance.  Bloodlines extended from Africa to America, and kinship survived slavery,  oppression, war, and migration.
               – from the book Homecoming: African-American Family History in Georgia by Carole Merritt

 

Museum Hours
Tuesday – Friday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Saturday & Sunday 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Closed to the public on Mondays and National Holidays
ADA Accessible – 1st Floor.
Wheelchair lift is located in rear of facility accessed by Oak Street.
Please call for assistance. Guided Tours Available.