Palmer exhibit captures Civil Rights Movement abroad

American history is no stranger to conflicting political, social and religious ideologies. Take, for example, the United States' post-World War II occupation of Germany. While the American government emphasized the spread of social justice and democracy, it unintentionally shone a spotlight on its own moral dilemmas. This raised an important question: How could America fight and chastise other countries for moral shortcomings when the U.S. government itself was denying civil rights to blacks at home? In posing this question, the issue of American civil rights suddenly grew beyond the bounds of the United States and became an international struggle.

Black civil rights on a global scale are the subject of The Civil Rights Struggle, African American GIs, and Germany, the new multimedia art exhibition at the James W. Palmer III gallery from Oct. 1 to Oct. 22. The exhibit shows how the issue of civil rights in the United States was globally propagated through the use of a segregated army, especially in Germany. It also focuses on the experience of the black GI in Germany.

The exhibit comprises 52 pieces of multimedia, including photographs, cartoons, newspaper clippings and an audio recording. Images displayed include the photograph of black World War II soldiers saluting their superiors with a black power fist. This photograph displays how the U.S. Army and the Civil Rights Movement conjoined in World War II Germany. A different photograph shows black GIs loading bombs into a box labeled "Easter Eggs for Hitler." Most of the newspaper clippings shown in the exhibit focus on writings from the African American press, which used America's fight against Hitler to advocate for abolition of Jim Crow laws and a segregated army.

The exhibit is curated by Associate Professor of History Maria Höhn and research fellow at the Heidelberg Center for American Studies at the University of Heidelberg, Martin Klimke. Höhn first began her research on the Civil Rights Movement after publishing her book GIs and Fräuleins: The German-American Encounters in 1950s West Germany in 2002, which discussed black GIs and their German girlfriends in Germany during World War II. Höhn's book was the first to address specifically black soldiers in Germany.

In 2008, the Humanity Council in Washington, D.C. asked Höhn to create part of a larger exhibit about the global legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Höhn and Klimke used their prior research to create The Civil Rights Struggle, African American GIs and Germany. The response to Höhn and Klimke's work was so positive that the exhibit remained open for four months. The exhibition is now slated to start a tour of United States and Germany, beginning with its stay at Vassar.

The exhibit is sub-divided into six sections. "World War I to World War II" displays photographs of black GIs as well as black women in Germany. "Occupation and Fraternization" depicts black post-World War II activity. Following World War II, black soldiers participated in the occupation of Germany, and two-and-a-half to three million ended up remaining in Germany at the conclusion of their tours. This portion of the exhibit depicts the relationship between black GIs and German Caucasians during occupation. There is a strong focus on the connection of black men and German women, to emphasize the dearth of racial adversity. The section also depicts the Germans' support for black's civil rights.

The other sections are about Martin Luther King, Jr.'s trip to Berlin, the formation of Black Power Societies, such as the Black Panthers in Germany, and social and political activist Angela Davis' journey through the country.

The multimedia exhibit features a never-before-heard audio recording of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s sermon from his trip to Berlin in 1964. Discovered by Klimke and Höhn, the recording of the sermon was hitherto unheard by the public ear in both Germany and America. Its presence in the exhibit will be the first time it is made available to the public. There is also an online portion to the exhibit (AACVR-germany.org) that displays photographs collected by Höhn, Klimke and their students. Höhn describes the website as a work-in-progress that allows people from all over the world to access the information provided by the exhibit.

Through this unique combination of multimedia, the exhibit becomes an intensely intellectual experience. "Our exhibition illustrates the untold story of African American GIs and their role in the occupation democratization of Germany after the defeat of the Third Reich. We also illustrate how the demands of the civil rights movement reverberated outside the United States, showing the many interactions and alliances that became possible between Germans and African American GIs stationed in Germany," explained Höhn.

Coinciding with the gallery's opening are several additional events pertaining to the Civil Rights Movement abroad, part of an international conference entitled African American Civil Rights in Germany in the 20th Century, hosted by Vassar and the German Historical Institute in Washington, D.C. Conference events include a panel discussion on Oct. 1 at 5:30 p.m. called "Tracing an Untold History: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Visit to Cold War Berlin in 1964." The purpose of the conference is to focus on the Civil Rights Movement in Germany and the experience of the black GIs while stationed in Germany. This will be done through lectures given by black World War II veterans and black civil rights activists who were in Germany during or after World War II.

One of the conference's speakers, Karl-Dietrich Wolff, was controversially denied entry into the United States last weekend (See "Visiting speaker denied ingress into JFK airport" on Page 4 of this issue of the Miscellany).

The conference begins on on Sept. 30 with a lecture called "Fighting in the German Army" given by black World War II veteran Leon Bass. Other speakers at the conference, which lasts until Oct. 4, will include German civil rights activists and other World War II veterans. One of the more notable speakers is activist, scholar and author Angela Davis.

In her lecture, Davis will discuss her experience as an exchange student at Frankfurt University in Germany from 1965 to 1967. During her time abroad, Davis was a prominent student activist with the German Civil Rights Movement. She will use her own experience to relay the interconnectedness of civil rights movements in both Germany and America.

Höhn cites her excitement in having such a renowned figure at the conference and on the Vassar campus, in general. "We are especially thrilled to have her here with us at the conference. She was an icon for people of my generation," she said. Höhn hopes that people will be able to learn about civil rights movements outside of America. "With that exhibition and our larger research project we are hoping to expand the boundaries of the Civil Rights Movement beyond the United States," she said.

In America's attempt to proclaim themselves the "leader of the free world" and make democratic societies, the Civil Rights Movement was given ammunition to preach equality and justice for black people. The unique experience of the black GI's during World War II is one that is often overlooked. The black experience being highlighted in this exhibit is one that has been shadowed for decades and can now finally be brought to the surface.