ATLANTA (AP) — There’s an exciting development happening in Atlanta as a renowned museum is undergoing expansion at a pivotal time in the U.S. Distinct from the Smithsonian Institution, the National Center for Civil and Human Rights relies on private funding, shielding it from any immediate governmental influence over the narratives presented to the public.
The extensive renovation, requiring an investment of nearly $60 million, introduces six new galleries, along with classrooms and interactive exhibits. This transformation shifts the museum’s role from being merely educational to also being a catalyst for social change, encouraging visitors to engage in civil and human rights, racial justice, and democracy advocacy, as expressed by Jill Savitt, the center’s president and CEO.
Before its scheduled reopening on November 8, the center has already been engaging the community through diverse educational initiatives. These include over 300 K-12 online lesson plans, a dedicated LGBTQ+ Institute, diversity training, human rights education for law enforcement, and the Truth & Transformation Initiative, which educates the public on the harsh realities of forced labor, racial terror, and other historical wrongdoings.
These are the same aspects of American history, culture and society that the Trump administration is seeking to dismantle.
Inspiring children to become ‘change agents’
Conceptualized by civil rights leaders Evelyn Lowery and Andrew Young, the center welcomed its first visitors in 2014, on land gifted by the Coca-Cola Company, located adjacent to the Georgia Aquarium and The World of Coca-Cola. It quickly became a popular tourist destination, although visitor numbers dwindled during the pandemic.
The museum now aims to boost repeat visits with engaging attractions such as “Change Agent Adventure,” designed for children under 12. These young “change agents” will take pledges, even small ones, that embody individual responsibility toward empathy, justice, and kindness, reflecting the gallery’s ethos. Savitt noted that this exhibit is set to open in April.
“I believe that advocacy and making a difference is incredibly inspiring and can be quite contagious,” Savitt elaborated. “Engagement breeds more engagement, and when you recognize your impact, it fuels the desire to continue. Our objective is to spark that initial interest in children, showing them they can contribute meaningfully.”
This ethos is sharply different from the idea that young people can’t handle the truth and must be protected from unpleasant challenges but, Savitt said, “the history that we tell here is the most inspirational history.”
“In fact, I think it’s what makes America great. It is something to be patriotically proud of. The way activists over time have worked together through nonviolence and changed democracy to expand human freedom — there’s nothing more American and nothing greater than that. That is the lesson that we teach here,” she said.
Encouraging visitors to be hopeful
“Broken Promises,” opening in December, includes exhibits from the post-Civil War Reconstruction era, cut short when white mobs sought to brutally reverse advances by formerly enslaved people. “We want to start orienting you in the conversation that we believe we all kind of see, but we don’t say it outright: Progress. Backlash. Progress. Backlash. And that pattern that has been in our country since enslavement,” said its curator, Kama Pierce.
On display will be a Georgia historical marker from the site of the 1918 lynching of Mary Turner, pockmarked repeatedly with bullets, that Turner descendants donated to keep it from being vandalized again.
“There are 11 bullet holes and 11 grandchildren living,” and the family’s words will be incorporated into the exhibit to show their resilience, Pierce said.
Items from the Morehouse College Martin Luther King Jr. collection will have a much more prominent place, in a room that recreates King’s home office, with family photos contributed by the center’s first guest curator: his daughter, the Rev. Bernice King. “We wanted to lift up King’s role as a man, as a human being, not just as an icon,” Savitt explained.
Gone are the huge images of the world’s most genocidal leaders — Hitler, Stalin and Mao among others — with explanatory text about the millions of people killed under their orders. In their place will be examples of human rights victories by groups working around the world.
“The research says that if you tell people things are really bad and how awful they are, you motivate people for a minute, and then apathy sets in because it’s too hard to do anything,” Savitt said. “But if you give people something to hope for that’s positive, that they can see themselves doing, you’re more likely to cultivate a sense of agency in people.”
Fostering a healthy democracy
And doubling in capacity is an experience many can’t forget: Joining a 1960s sit-in against segregation. Wearing headphones as they take a lunch-counter stool, visitors can both hear and feel an angry, segregationist mob shouting they don’t belong. Because this is “heavy content,” Savitt says, a new “reflection area” will allow people to pause afterward on a couch, with tissues if they need them, to consider what they’ve just been through.
The center’s expansion was seeded by Home Depot co-founder and Atlanta philanthropist Arthur M. Blank, the Mellon Foundation and many other donors, for which Savitt expressed gratitude: “The corporate community is in a defensive crouch right now — they could get targeted,” she said.
But she said donors shared concerns about people’s understanding of citizenship, so supporting the teaching of civil and human rights makes a good investment.
“It is the story of democracy — Who gets to participate? Who has a say? Who gets to have a voice?” she said. “So our donors are very interested in a healthy, safe, vibrant, prosperous America, which you need a healthy democracy to have.”
