NEWPORT, Ky. — Northern Kentucky University students launched a new exhibit to celebrate and pay tribute to Juneteenth at a historic location in Newport.
One of the students says his goal in doing the project was to show people an unfiltered version of history, even if it makes them uncomfortable.
It only takes a few minutes talking to Winston Benge to know he’s passionate about history and is eager to learn. He’s also eager to pass that passion onto others, which is why, while he’s in the midst of his Masters of Public History program at NKU, he’s also working part time at two local museums.
It also only takes one second to see Benge is white. So spending the entire past semester working on an exhibit dedicated to Juneteenth is something he and his classmates, who are also white, tried to do with the utmost level of care.
“We’ve been thinking about this whole committee, being white students, about how we can incorporate Black voices into our work,” Benge said. “It’s something that’s sort of overlooked. And the celebration of Juneteenth is also kind of usurped by media interests who try to put on airs of diversity and inclusivity without being really genuine about it. So what we’re trying to do with this exhibit is tell the real story of Juneteenth.”
Benge, Christopher Riehl, Jennifer Williams, and their program director Dr. Brian Hackett partnered with the city of Newport to unveil the exhibit, which commemorates the emancipation of enslaved African Americans.
“If you boil down American history, if you think about: what is America? And you had to sum it down to very few words, one of those words is freedom. We fought for our freedom. We fought to be who we are. But freedom for everybody, not just a few,” Hackett said. “And everybody contributed to that freedom, to define what that freedom was. And to exclude part of history, or forget about that part of history, is censorship, and that’s wrong.”
Ten panels are broken up into three parts: promise delivered, promise denied and promise revisited. It details union troops reading the emancipation proclamation, progress and setbacks through the Jim Crow, Reconstruction and Civil Rights eras, and then contemporary issues such as police brutality and mass incarceration that the African American community still struggles with today.
“The story of Juneteenth can really be framed as a continuous for freedom, or a continuous struggle for liberty in this country,” Benge said.
The location of the exhibit is just as significant. Southgate Street School was once the only school open for African American students in Campbell County following emancipation. Now a museum, its director Daylin Garland said he’s pleased with the newest addition.
“When I read the first panel, I was very, very charged. Because I was very, very excited about the job that they did. I really just want people to come and read them for themselves,” Garland said. “Juneteenth for me represents a time in history where America chose to do better. And so we have to continue in that tradition to do better.”
Benge said he can’t fathom presenting people with anything less than a complete view of history.
“This exhibit definitely will not be received well by every group of people. And that’s something we understand going in. But we’re here to tell an unfiltered history. And unfiltered history will always make some groups of people uncomfortable. But the way I see it, an educator’s job is sometimes to make their students feel uncomfortable,” he said.
And for someone who hopes to see himself in a role like Garland’s someday soon, Benge plans to bring that level of insight to whatever museum he ends up working in full time.
The Southgate Street School museum is holding a Juneteenth celebration on June 16 from 5:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.