African Americans Fighting for a Double Victory

Now through 2025
National Afro-American Museum & Cultural Center, Wilberforce

The National Afro-American Museum & Cultural Center’s new long-term exhibit, African Americans Fighting for a Double Victory, features images of drawings by African American muralist Charles Alston, who was commissioned by the Office of War Information during World War II to create a series of drawings to promote the war effort at home and abroad. Unlike the many other war propaganda materials, Alston’s work features African Americans and sought to encourage African American support of the war effort.

Through these images, and a wide variety two and three-dimensional materials from the National Afro-American Museum & Cultural Center archives and collections, you can explore the impact of African American military and civilian service and experience what daily life was like on the home front. Like all Americans, blacks purchased war bonds, grew victory gardens, conserved resources and supported the troops with letters to family members and friends in uniform. Learn about the impact that returning veterans and civilians had on the civil rights movement from 1950 and beyond. The exhibit ends with an overview of African American social and political empowerment over the last 50 years and the election of President Barack Obama.