“The history of slavery is the history of the United States. It was not peripheral to our founding; it was central to it. It is not irrelevant to our contemporary society; it created it. This history is in our soil, it is in our policies, and it must, too, be in our memories.”
– Epilogue, How the Word Is Passed
In How the Word Is Passed, Clint Smith examines how we understand who we are as a nation through what we choose to remember. Smith focuses specifically on the legacy of slavery, a foundational aspect of our history, by traveling to different historic sites such as the Monticello Plantation, an institution reckoning with Thomas Jefferson’s relationship to slavery, and Galveston Island, where Smith witnesses young students contextualizing the significance of Juneteenth. Smith also relays stories of white supremacy that are closer to home through conversations with his grandparents, who lived through eras of intense segregation and anti-Black violence, and accounts about his hometown of New Orleans, where streets and monuments had been named after notorious enslavers. Throughout his travels, Smith meets people with a range of relationships to the past, including some who actively resist acknowledging the horrors of slavery and others who are working hard to bring it to light.
This selection of artworks from The Block’s collection—including photographs, prints, sculpture, and an installation—adds to the conversation by highlighting artists who use different strategies to reckon with the history of slavery, white supremacy, symbols of nationhood, and social inequity.
We invite members of the Northwestern community and beyond to use these artworks as opportunities to connect to the themes of the text, whether they are used for private contemplation or as a springboard in discussion with others. We are happy to provide a shareable pdf booklet and downloadable images for teaching and engagement. You can schedule a class visit to discuss these works in person in our study center by contacting Essi Rönkkö at essi.ronkko@northwestern.edu.
