By JANINE COOPER
Observer Staff
Nov. 8, 2007

Henry Highland Garnet, by James U. Stead
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution

In 1843, abolitionist Henry Highland Garnet spoke to a group of free blacks and said, “Strike for your lives and liberties…Let your motto be resistance! Resistance! RESISTANCE…What kind of resistance you…make you must decide by the circumstances that surround you.”

These powerful words would later serve as the inspiration behind the National Portrait Gallery’s “Let Your Motto Be Resistance” exhibit. The exhibit features African American icons from over 150 years of history.

There are more than a 100 photographs that depict African American actors and actresses, musicians, singers, civil rights leaders and other historical figures.

The exhibit’s goal is to step away from the demeaning stereotypes of African Americans and present a group of photographs that show the success and positive impact of African-Americans.

“The theme that I considered was based on resistance and beauty,” said Deborah Willis, guest curator of the exhibit. “As I researched images in the collection, I thought about the number of faces in the collection that found different ways to resist racism, sexism, and complacency.”

Willis said that common African American depictions in the past have been governed by prevailing attitudes about race and sexuality and she wanted to show beauty, prestige, and empowerment through the photographs.

Some of the people that are in the photographs were not famous when they were photographed.

Willis said that some of them used these photographs as means to become famous, by being photographed in a certain pose or having a picture taken by a certain photographer.

Some of the highlights of the exhibit include Dan Weiner’s photographs of Martin Luther King Jr., Linda McCartney’s portrait of Jimi Hendrix and Josef Breitenbach’s picture of Sarah Vaughan.

“I hope that viewers will expand their knowledge about the people in the exhibition and see that photographs did much more than record the presence of these black men and women in America,” said Willis, “that these images also transferred to other blacks, creating a communal portrait of prestige and power that resisted the stereotyping.”

The exhibit has been in the works for about two years now and serves as the inaugural exhibition of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. It will run until March 2 of next year.