Welcome to the conversation!


Welcome to the conversation!

Harriet Beecher Stowe's (1811-1896) best-selling anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852), made her the most famous American woman of the 19th century and galvanized the abolition movement before the Civil War.

The Stowe Center is a 21st-century museum and program center using Stowe's story to inspire social justice and positive change.

The Salons at Stowe programs are a forum to connect the challenging issues (race, gender and class) that impelled Stowe to write and act with the contemporary face of those same issues. The Salon format is based on a robust level of audience participation, with the explicit goal of promoting civic engagement. Recent topics included: Teaching Acceptance; Is Prison the New Slavery; Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North; Creativity and Change; Race, Gender and Politics Today; How to be an Advocate

This blog will expand the reach of these community conversations to the online audience. Add your posts and comments to keep the conversation going! Commit to action by clicking HERE to stay up to date on Salon and social justice news.

For updates on Stowe Center programs and events, sign up for our enews at http://harrietbeecherstowe.org/email.

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

5 Questions on Race for #BlackHistoryMonth by @SitesConscience

In recognition of Black History Month, the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center participated in a question series on racial justice sponsored by The International Coalition of Sites of Conscience. The Coalition is a collective of museums, institutions, and memorials that connect the past to the present in order to inform contemporary work towards justice. For Black History Month, The Coalition highlighted five member sites by featuring a question from each site on black history, race, or the fight towards racial justice.

Below is the question submitted by the Stowe Center:
Racism is often interpreted as one individual acting with prejudice towards another individual on the basis of race. But history teaches us that racism is not only individual, but also institutional. Racism is built into the foundation of the United States from the early days of colonization and slavery. Today, it operates in education, policing, health care, housing and even food policy. When defining racism, why do many people ignore institutional racism? How can you challenge institutional racism today?

The other featured sites included the Missouri History Museum, the National Civil Rights Museum, America's Black Holocaust Museum, and the Pauli Murray Project.

How would you answer the question? Why do you think we chose to ask this particular question? What question would you ask? Check out the questions asked my the other institutions and share your reactions in the comments below! 

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