Maria Mitchell used this telescope, now at the American History Museum, when she taught at Vassar. Image courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution.

Standing in the entrance to the first floor west wing of the National Museum of American History, a large telescope towers over visitors. It’s angled toward the ceiling, drawing the eye up to imagine the sky above. Saturday marks an auspicious day for the artifact. It is the 191st birthday of astronomer Maria Mitchell, a woman who not only broke the proverbial glass ceiling of her time but managed to gaze deep into the heavens, using this telescope and made significant contributions to the science.

Made by New Yorker Henry Fitz, it was the third largest in the U.S. in the late 1800s. With a 12-3/8 inch diameter lens and equatorial mount, which aligned it with Earth’s poles, the astronomical instrument is impressive.

In 1818, women weren’t expected to be scientists, much less astronomers. Maria Mitchell, born on August 1 of that year, challenged that preconception, becoming an astronomy professor at Vassar Female College where she used Fitz’s telescope.

Mitchell grew up in Nantucket and was greatly influenced by her father, William Mitchell, who was a teacher and encouraged her use of his telescope. For 20 years, she worked as a librarian, while watching the stars at night.

In October 1847, Mitchell established the orbit of a new comet, a discovery that skyrocketed her standing in the scientific community, and she won a medal from the King of Denmark for her efforts. The next year, she became the first woman elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and became known as America’s first professional female astronomer.

Mitchell accepted a teaching position at Vassar Female College when it opened in 1865. She was an astronomy professor and director of the observatory, which housed the Fitz telescope that had been purchased by the college’s founder, Matthew Vassar.

As a teacher Mitchell encouraged her students to use science to break free from traditional female roles. She once said: “When (women) come to truth through their investigations … the truth which they get will be theirs, and their minds will work on and on unfettered.”

Now, 191 years after her birth, visitors to the American History Museum can see the larger-than-life telescope that Mitchell used during her time at Vassar. As a landmark object, the telescope guides visitors to the science and innovation wing of the museum, where they can learn about everything from the stars to backyard bomb shelters.

This image taken in 1976 became known as the "Face on Mars."

Thirty-three years ago this week, in one of the first images sent back from Mars, people thought they detected the likeness of a human face rising from the dust of the red planet. The photo was captured by Viking 1, the first spacecraft to successfully travel to and land on Mars.

The image inspired tabloid headlines like “Monkey Face on Mars” and books like Richard Hoagland’s The Monuments of Mars, in which Hoagland claimed, based on the photos, to have seen “an entire city laid out — on Mars! — with the precision of a Master Architect. I had indeed discovered some kind of artificially constructed Martian ‘complex.’”

Once the public saw the “Face on Mars,” as it came to be called, people became interested in the neighboring planet and possible life there. The trouble, says Smithsonian geologist John Grant of the Center for Earth and Planetary Studies, is that people assumed it was a sign of advanced alien life.

“In fact, there was a little bit of a misconception about what kind of life scientists were trying to discover on Mars, which was relatively simple life versus complicated life forms that were carving big faces in rocks,” Grant explains.

When scientists first viewed the image, they were confident it was an eroded rock formation, probably a mesa. High resolution photos taken in 1998 and 2001 have confirmed that the “Face on Mars” is a trick of the eye, seen when light hits the mesa at a certain angle. Different parts of the planet’s surface are more resistant to erosion than others and don’t erode as quickly, leaving some areas higher and others lower. This process forms a relief that then creates the shadow, making it look like a face at certain times.

The Viking Lander (proof test article) is on view at the National Air and Space Museum. Photo by Dane Penland, courtesy of Smithsonian Institution.

Grant likes to compare it to the Old Man in the Mountain in New Hampshire (which fell down in 2003). “No one ever thought that the Old Man in the Mountain was something carved by people or aliens or anything else. Yet they could look at it and say: ‘Oh yeah, I see how the sun is shining on that and shadows are cast and it looks like a man’s head,’” he says.

“The same thing can happen on Mars and produce something that, just by sheer coincidence and the way erosion has occurred, creates something that looks like a face,” Grant adds.

The spacecraft Viking 1, that captured the iconic image,  was launched on Aug. 20, 1975, followed one month later by Viking 2. While orbiting Mars, a camera onboard Viking I began scanning potential landing sights, beaming the images back to Earth. In the early morning of July 20, 1976, the Viking 1 lander separated from the orbiter and successfully descended to the surface at about 10,000 miles per hour. Viking 2 followed on Sept. 3, 1976.

The two Viking spacecraft collected information about Martian atmosphere, meteorology and soil composition, and captured more than 50,000 images during their time in orbit and on the surface.

A test version of the Viking Lander now resides in the Milestones of Flight Gallery at the National Air and Space Museum.

A tufted deer is weighed at the National Zoo Research Center. Photo by Lisa Ware, courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution.

A rare tufted deer was born at the National Zoo’s Conservation and Research Center in Virginia on July 16. The deer was the fourth species to give birth in one week, joining the clouded leopards, Przewalski horses and red pandas in welcoming new members to the Zoo family.

Tufted deer, called that for the tuft of hair on their forehead, are native to the forests of southern China. They are usually found within giant panda reserves. The animal is difficult to trace in the wild because of its elusive habits—it travels alone, or with a single mate, in the late evening or at dusk. But wildlife experts say that some 100,000 are killed annually by local hunters. The IUCN lists the species as near threatened; and even captive animals are rare with fewer than 110 living in U.S. zoos.

This is the 11th tufted deer baby to be born at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo since 1994, when the first arrived. Unlike North American white-tailed deer, tufted deer only grow to be about 1.5 feet tall, about the height of a medium-sized dog.

The keepers say that, as in the wild, the mother will raise her fawn alone, although the father usually stays with the pregnant mother until she gives birth. This tufted deer family will not be on public display.

Today marks the anniversary of Bugs Bunny’s first starring role in “A Wild Hare.” An early version of the ”wascally wabbit” had appeared in 1938′s ”Porky’s Hare Hunt,” but it wasn’t until this 1940 short film that his character was fully designed and delivered the immortal line “What’s up, Doc?” to his nemesis Elmer Fudd.

Since then this long-eared actor hasn’t looked back, sharing the screen with Michael Jordan and co-starring in the Oscar-winning film, Who Framed Roger Rabbit? In 2002, he topped TV Guide’s list of greatest cartoon characters.

Bugs Bunny’s contributions to entertainment and pop culture haven’t been overlooked by the Smithsonian Institution. In the National Museum of American History’s “Thanks for the Memories” exhibition, animation cells of Bugs and other Looney Tunes are displayed right around the corner from the ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland in the 1939 film “Wizard of Oz.” All of the cells were donated by Mel Blanc, the actor who gave Bugs his Brooklyn/Bronx voice.

So, if you’re on the mall today, be sure to stop by the American History Museum and pay homage to Bugs.

Author Rohulamin Quander will be at the Anacostia Community Museum Saturday. Photo courtesy of Quander.

Quander was instrumental in the incorporation of the first African American sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha.  Judge Rohulamin Quander, a relative, has written a biography of her titled Nellie Quander, An Alpha Kappa Alpha Pearl: The Story of the Woman Who Saved an International Organization. Rohulamin Quander will lead a discussion and sign copies of his book at 10:30 AM on Saturday, July 25 at the Anacostia Community Museum, as part of ongoing programming for the exhibition Jubilee: African American Celebration.

Your presentation is related to the Jubilee exhibit. What are some of the celebrations of African American sororities and fraternities?

Some of the traditional celebrations of African American Greek letter organizations are naturally Founders Day, in which we come together to celebrate the founding of our organization. We commemorate and look back at the goals and objectives of the sorority and fraternity. We see how we hopefully have been measuring up to meeting that goal, mostly related to providing service in terms of literacy programs, mentoring programs and health-related programs. We also need to take time and have a little party here and there, where we interact with brothers of the fraternity and also invited guests.

We realize that these organizations started in the first place partly out of rejection, when we were not accepted by the larger organizations. Today, we have what we refer to as the Divine 9, five African American fraternities and four African American sororities. All of whom, I might point out, while they are predominately African American, also do have members who are not African American—Caucasian, Asian and Latino. The organizations were open to non-African Americans because of the feeling that we would not discriminate against non-African Americans the way we as a group had been discriminated against.

Nellie Quander was 30 years old when she joined Alpha Kappa Alpha. Why did she join when she was already a successful teacher and studying at Howard?

When she came to Howard University in 1910, the number of women there was so miniscule you could count them if not on two hands, on two hands and two feet. She entered Howard in January 1910 and the sorority was also advertising that same month for the new line of intakers. It was the second year that Alpha Kappa Alpha was taking a group of women into the sorority. So she signed up at the same time and was initiated in the following weeks. This was a lifelong commitment and for the women, who were very much new going to university, this was an opportunity to intellectually associate with one another and not to find themselves in total isolation.

Quander will sign copies of his book, Nellie Quander, An Alpha Kappa Alpha Pearl. Photo courtesy of the author.

Women came together to talk about things that interest women. Not just marriage, not just children. This decade of the 1910s, it was not unlike the decade of the 1960s, when there’s a lot of activism. The NAACP was founded in 1909, the Urban League in 1910. Women and men are in sororities and fraternities. [They] came together intellectually and they got out, demonstrated and participated. Nellie Quander was always a hands-on person.

Why was incorporation a necessary step for Alpha Kappa Alpha?

Incorporation was necessary because when the sorority was founded at Howard University in January 1908, it consisted of just those who were enrolled at Howard University. Once you left, there was no more opportunity to participate with the sorority. Also, the idea of extending service to all mankind, if you’re going to do that, you need to put yourself in a position where you can set up other chapters with other like-minded people whether they were in Chicago, Baltimore, Oklahoma or elsewhere, where they too can participate in this network. Until the sorority took the leap of creating a national organization, they were very limited. It took the internal breakup in October of 1912 when a group of sorority members left to form Delta Sigma Theta to make those who were still there say ‘we better do it.’ Nellie Quander took the lead. Incorporation created the ability to become a national organization.

What is the legacy of Nellie Quander?

She was always dedicated to a life of rendering service to others. She didn’t have a husband, didn’t have children, but she was always involved in figuring out how she could help somebody else. She did this in Sunday school at her church, she did it at the YWCA where she was involved with every committee, she also operated a community center at the Miner Normal school which was for after-school programming. Having grown up in a very specific society—even though her family didn’t have money—in which they knew who they were and where they came from, she had the legacy of being a niece of a senator and the friend of Frederick Douglass. She knew she was a special person and she wore that on her sleeve.

Be sure to see the Mami Wata exhibit before it closes this weekend. Image courtesy of the National Museum of African Art.

Over time, the diety Mami Wata has become a blend of cultures and religions, influenced by Hinduism, Islam and Christianity. At the museum, an altar glistens among the paintings and sculptures that depict her with a mermaid-like form, flowing hair and grasping a snake. Even though the altar has not been consecrated, or blessed, visitors have been moved to leave offerings.

Powder has been sprinkled across the bottom tier, while a hair brush, star-shaped swizzle stick and charms from a bracelet have been left behind on the altar. Coins have been rearranged and spread out on the lower tier. The only gift that was removed was a fresh plum, because food is not allowed in the galleries, explains chief curator Christine Kreamer, and would have attracted insects.

The altar is a recreation of a shrine owned by modern-day priestess Mamissi Pascaline Acrobessi Toyi in Ouidah, Benin (a country west of Nigeria). Traditionally, Toyi blesses all the offerings during a seven-day rite of singing, dancing, purifying, blessing and fasting. The items that were installed on the altar as part of the museum exhibit are examples of Toyi’s offerings. One that catches the eye is the miniature plastic guitar, which is explained in the signage with a quote from Toyi: “It is with music that Mami is content… If you play the guitar and sing she will be happy… She loves to go to nightclubs.”

Clearly, the visitor offerings, inspired by the power and lore of Mami Wata, are testament to the exhibition’s impact.

“Visitors have certainly interacted with the altar as if it were a functioning, dedicated altar, and there continues to be great interest in this water spirit and the arts dedicated to her,” Kreamer said.

Alan Bean at his studio. Photo by Carolyn Russo, National Air and Space Museum. Image courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution.

Alan Bean, now a professional artist, spent 18 years as an astronaut at NASA, where he flew in the Apollo 12 mission—becoming the fourth man to walk on the moon—and later commanded Skylab 3, spending 59 days in space. He creates his artwork using acrylics and adds texture with moon boots, his NASA hammer and pieces of his patches that still have a bit of moon dust on them.

Bean will sign copies of his book, Alan Bean: Painting Apollo, First Artist on Another World, today from 11 AM to 2 PM at the Air and Space Museum. The exhibit of the same title, featuring 50 of his paintings, is on display at the museum until January 13.

You have said that going to the moon doesn’t change a person, it reveals things that are already there. What did going to the moon reveal in you?

Well, it revealed this interest in art that I didn’t even know was this strong. I think it revealed [something else] for me, in that I think a lot of times you had feelings toward people and you’re afraid to say it because it might be embarrassing to you or they might reject you. I noticed that since I’ve been back from the moon, it’s given me more self-confidence. Other than that, I still like the same things, but I even like them more.

For instance, I like ice cream. I can remember when I got back from Skylab, it wasn’t the moon, but it was 59 days away. One of the first things I wanted to do was go down to a shopping center and get an ice cream cone and just watch people go by. Because I can remember looking down and saying ‘There’s a lot of people down there and I can’t see any of them,’ and ‘I need an ice cream,’ but I didn’t have one. The simpler things in life seemed to please me more.

I’m just happy every day. By the way, I don’t think you have to go to the moon to feel this way, but it helps if you can achieve whatever your dream is. If you do, then I think that completes a chapter in your life somehow and then you can open a new page or you can risk more.

It seems like being an astronaut and an artist are two entirely different professions, but have you found any similarities?

They are very different. Psychologists tell us that flying airplanes, space ships and doing mathematics, those are left brain (analytical) functions. What I’ve observed over the years is people who are successful have to use both sides of their brains. Certainly the people who were engineers and scientists at division Apollo had to use their right brain (creativity) to conceive that they could do this, and then conceive of a spacecraft, how it might look, and maybe two spacecraft, and maybe a big rocket.

They don’t realize—because psychologists all these years have told them they’re left brain—that they’re really working the right brain. And then in order to do it, then you have to use your left brain and systematically do this by Wednesday, do this by March, and so on. I didn’t know why I wanted to paint and none of my other pilot or astronaut friends did. It seemed like a good thing to do. It seemed like it was nice. I think it was just a natural, they used their left brain more than their right because they had to, and I did, too, at that time.

What shifts in thinking did you make when you started painting professionally?

One of the things that I decided, was that I’m not going to be an astronaut who paints. I’m going be a guy that’s an artist now and used to be an astronaut 28 years ago. That’s the way I think of myself. I went back to art school. I took courses. I didn’t just say ‘Now I’m an artist,’ even though it was my hobby. I said ‘I’ve got to learn to be that.’

You’ve viewed the moon from many perspectives: as a citizen, an astronaut and an artist. Do you look at the moon differently now than in the past?

Yes, because as an artist you’re more interested in how things actually look. When you’re an astronaut, you’re more interested in how you do it, meaning things like what size it is, what’s the mass, and what altitude am I going to pass above it. You know what the moon looks like, but you’re not studying it. Now as an artist, I am looking very careful at everything. This was true about all the space hardware. One of the reasons that I stayed in Houston. I knew it all, but I didn’t know exactly how it looked, so I had to stay somewhere I could go look at spacesuits, look at the connectors, and rovers. It’s a different skill and you have to go back to square one and learn it.

To learn more about Alan Bean’s work as an artist and astronaut, check out this video that is part of the exhibition at the Air and Space Museum.

This text is written in Kufic script, a style of Arabic calligraphy. Image courtesy of the Freer and Sackler Gallery of Art.

With a steady hand, Oman calligrapher Abdullah al Waili demonstrated how to write in Arabic script to a packed room at the Sackler Gallery of Art.

He and Aishah Holland, a U.S.-based calligrapher, led the ImaginAsia program about Arabic calligraphy, which will be taught again today and tomorrow at 2 PM in the second-floor Sackler classroom.

As al Waili wrote the flowing script, Holland presented a short history of Arabic calligraphy styles. “Most of the letters join, just like English script. Arabic script is very much like music, it has a style and a rhythm to it,” she says.

The rise of Arabic calligraphy as art is closely connected with the Islamic faith. Calligraphy was, and still is, considered a way to represent God by writing the words of the Koran, the Muslim holy text, she adds.

After her presentation, Holland walked around the room helping children and adults alike make the letters of the Arabic alphabet.

This example of Arabic calligraphy from the Koran tells the stories of prophets like Abraham and Noah. Image courtesy of the Freer and Sackler Gallery of Art.

Interested in trying it yourself? Here are five tips for beginning Arabic calligraphy:

1. Use a natural wood pen—in this case, a popsicle stick with shaved nib (tip)—that resembles the reeds and bamboo that calligraphers often use.

2. Put yarn in the inkwell to soak up the ink so that you don’t put too much on the pen.

3. Write on a soft surface. At the workshop, participants were given smooth-sided paper (not from the printer) and placed a thin piece of stiff foam underneath it.

4. Begin by writing dots, which in the Arabic script look more like diamonds.

5. Have fun! While Arabic calligraphy requires patience, the sweeping lines and flourishes make for a one-of-a-kind creative experience.

If you want personal instruction or more tips from al Waili and Holland, check out the program this afternoon or tomorrow!

Roger Guenveur Smith will bring Frederick Douglass to life at the Folklife Festival. Image courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution.

Many actors have gained fame for their ability to inhabit completely different characters, but few have been able to continually improve upon their portrayal of the same role throughout their career. Roger Guenveur Smith is one of those rare few.

On July 4th and 5th, Smith will portray Frederick Douglass in a dramatic presentation of Douglass’ famed 1852 Fourth of July speech. But this is not the first time that Smith has played the famous abolitionist, editor and orator.

“I’ve been working on Douglass since I was an undergraduate at Occidental College, and as you know, the work of Douglass is voluminous. It can take a lifetime of study to get a handle on Douglass and that’s really what I’ve been doing,” Smith says, adding that he was inspired as a child by Hal Holbrook’s 1967 Mark Twain performance.

Smith’s past film credits have included roles in School Daze, Malcolm X and Summer of Sam. He has received an Obie Award for his solo stage performance in A Huey P. Newton Story, which he also wrote. With all of his characters, Smith integrates history and a heavy dose of imagination.

“I think with my Douglass, my Newton or even my Columbus, I’ve tried to personalize these larger-than-life figures to make them people that we can somehow relate to, beyond the history pages,” he says. “So, for example, my Christopher Columbus is still among us as a lounge entertainer with political aspirations who runs a travel agency on the side. My Newton does not live in the year 1966 exclusively, but in the present moment. My Frederick Douglass communicates with Harriet Tubman on his Blackberry. So I take imaginative license in trying to bring all of these characters into the present moment, because I’m not interested exclusively in nostalgia or simply historical recreation. I want these characters to live and breath in the moment.”

Smith will deliver an abbreviated version of one of Frederick Douglass’ best known speeches, “The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro.” In 1852, Douglass was invited to speak at an event commemorating the signing of the Declaration of Independence. He refused the July 4 invitation, and instead gave a sobering two-and-a-half hour speech the following day at Rochester’s Corinthian Hall.

“He begins by extolling the virtues of the American Revolution, but he ends by saying that the Revolution was not complete because one-seventh of the inhabitants of the country were [still] enslaved,” Smith says.

Time moves on, but 150 years hence, the measured cadences of Frederick Douglass’ speech that day resonate.

“One would like to think that Douglass would be kind of a dinosaur or a relic, but for better, and quite often for worse, what Douglass has to say about American civilization is still relevant in our present moment,” Smith says.

Roger Guenveur Smith performs at 4 PM on July 4 and at 2 PM on July 5 at the Oratorium tent as part of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. To read Frederick Douglass’ “The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro, please continue to the jump.

Frederick Douglass. Image courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution.

Fellow Citizens, I am not wanting in respect for the fathers of this republic. The signers of the Declaration of Independence were brave men. They were great men, too great enough to give frame to a great age. It does not often happen to a nation to raise, at one time, such a number of truly great men. The point from which I am compelled to view them is not, certainly, the most favorable; and yet I cannot contemplate their great deeds with less than admiration. They were statesmen, patriots and heroes, and for the good they did, and the principles they contended for, I will unite with you to honor their memory….

…Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here to-day? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? and am I, therefore, called upon to bring our humble offering to the national altar, and to confess the benefits and express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from your independence to us?

Would to God, both for your sakes and ours, that an affirmative answer could be truthfully returned to these questions! Then would my task be light, and my burden easy and delightful. For who is there so cold, that a nation’s sympathy could not warm him? Who so obdurate and dead to the claims of gratitude, that would not thankfully acknowledge such priceless benefits? Who so stolid and selfish, that would not give his voice to swell the hallelujahs of a nation’s jubilee, when the chains of servitude had been torn from his limbs? I am not that man. In a case like that, the dumb might eloquently speak, and the “lame man leap as an hart.”

But such is not the state of the case. I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us. I am not included within the pale of glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought light and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn. To drag a man in fetters into the grand illuminated temple of liberty, and call upon him to join you in joyous anthems, were inhuman mockery and sacrilegious irony. Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak to-day? If so, there is a parallel to your conduct. And let me warn you that it is dangerous to copy the example of a nation whose crimes, towering up to heaven, were thrown down by the breath of the Almighty, burying that nation in irrevocable ruin! I can to-day take up the plaintive lament of a peeled and woe-smitten people!

“By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. Yea! we wept when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. For there, they that carried us away captive, required of us a song; and they who wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. How can we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land? If I forget thee, 0 Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth.”

Fellow-citizens, above your national, tumultuous joy, I hear the mournful wail of millions! whose chains, heavy and grievous yesterday, are, to-day, rendered more intolerable by the jubilee shouts that reach them. If I do forget, if I do not faithfully remember those bleeding children of sorrow this day, “may my right hand forget her cunning, and may my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth!” To forget them, to pass lightly over their wrongs, and to chime in with the popular theme, would be treason most scandalous and shocking, and would make me a reproach before God and the world. My subject, then, fellow-citizens, is American slavery. I shall see this day and its popular characteristics from the slave’s point of view. Standing there identified with the American bondman, making his wrongs mine, I do not hesitate to declare, with all my soul, that the character and conduct of this nation never looked blacker to me than on this 4th of July! Whether we turn to the declarations of the past, or to the professions of the present, the conduct of the nation seems equally hideous and revolting. America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future. Standing with God and the crushed and bleeding slave on this occasion, I will, in the name of humanity which is outraged, in the name of liberty which is fettered, in the name of the constitution and the Bible which are disregarded and trampled upon, dare to call in question and to denounce, with all the emphasis I can command, everything that serves to perpetuate slavery the great sin and shame of America! “I will not equivocate; I will not excuse”; I will use the severest language I can command; and yet not one word shall escape me that any man, whose judgment is not blinded by prejudice, or who is not at heart a slaveholder, shall not confess to be right and just.

But I fancy I hear some one of my audience say, “It is just in this circumstance that you and your brother abolitionists fail to make a favorable impression on the public mind. Would you argue more, and denounce less; would you persuade more, and rebuke less; your cause would be much more likely to succeed.” But, I submit, where all is plain there is nothing to be argued. What point in the anti-slavery creed would you have me argue? On what branch of the subject do the people of this country need light? Must I undertake to prove that the slave is a man? That point is conceded already. Nobody doubts it. The slaveholders themselves acknowledge it in the enactment of laws for their government. They acknowledge it when they punish disobedience on the part of the slave. There are seventy-two crimes in the State of Virginia which, if committed by a black man (no matter how ignorant he be), subject him to the punishment of death; while only two of the same crimes will subject a white man to the like punishment. What is this but the acknowledgment that the slave is a moral, intellectual, and responsible being? The manhood of the slave is conceded. It is admitted in the fact that Southern statute books are covered with enactments forbidding, under severe fines and penalties, the teaching of the slave to read or to write. When you can point to any such laws in reference to the beasts of the field, then I may consent to argue the manhood of the slave. When the dogs in your streets, when the fowls of the air, when the cattle on your hills, when the fish of the sea, and the reptiles that crawl, shall be unable to distinguish the slave from a brute, then will I argue with you that the slave is a man!

For the present, it is enough to affirm the equal manhood of the Negro race. Is it not astonishing that, while we are ploughing, planting, and reaping, using all kinds of mechanical tools, erecting houses, constructing bridges, building ships, working in metals of brass, iron, copper, silver and gold; that, while we are reading, writing and ciphering, acting as clerks, merchants and secretaries, having among us lawyers, doctors, ministers, poets, authors, editors, orators and teachers; that, while we are engaged in all manner of enterprises common to other men, digging gold in California, capturing the whale in the Pacific, feeding sheep and cattle on the hill-side, living, moving, acting, thinking, planning, living in families as husbands, wives and children, and, above all, confessing and worshipping the Christian’s God, and looking hopefully for life and immortality beyond the grave, we are called upon to prove that we are men!

Would you have me argue that man is entitled to liberty? that he is the rightful owner of his own body? You have already declared it. Must I argue the wrongfulness of slavery? Is that a question for Republicans? Is it to be settled by the rules of logic and argumentation, as a matter beset with great difficulty, involving a doubtful application of the principle of justice, hard to be understood? How should I look to-day, in the presence of Americans, dividing, and subdividing a discourse, to show that men have a natural right to freedom? speaking of it relatively and positively, negatively and affirmatively. To do so, would be to make myself ridiculous, and to offer an insult to your understanding. There is not a man beneath the canopy of heaven that does not know that slavery is wrong for him.

What, am I to argue that it is wrong to make men brutes, to rob them of their liberty, to work them without wages, to keep them ignorant of their relations to their fellow men, to beat them with sticks, to flay their flesh with the lash, to load their limbs with irons, to hunt them with dogs, to sell them at auction, to sunder their families, to knock out their teeth, to burn their flesh, to starve them into obedience and submission to their masters? Must I argue that a system thus marked with blood, and stained with pollution, is wrong? No! I will not. I have better employment for my time and strength than such arguments would imply.

What, then, remains to be argued? Is it that slavery is not divine; that God did not establish it; that our doctors of divinity are mistaken? There is blasphemy in the thought. That which is inhuman, cannot be divine! Who can reason on such a proposition? They that can, may; I cannot. The time for such argument is passed.

At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. O! had I the ability, and could reach the nation’s ear, I would, to-day, pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and its crimes against God and man must be proclaimed and denounced.

What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer; a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are, to Him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy — a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages.There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of the United States, at this very hour.

Go where you may, search where you will, roam through all the monarchies and despotisms of the Old World, travel through South America, search out every abuse, and when you have found the last, lay your facts by the side of the everyday practices of this nation, and you will say with me, that, for revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival….

…Allow me to say, in conclusion, notwithstanding the dark picture I have this day presented, of the state of the nation, I do not despair of this country. There are forces in operation which must inevitably work the downfall of slavery. “The arm of the Lord is not shortened,” and the doom of slavery is certain. I, therefore, leave off where I began, with hope. While drawing encouragement from “the Declaration of Independence,” the great principles it contains, and the genius of American Institutions, my spirit is also cheered by the obvious tendencies of the age. Nations do not now stand in the same relation to each other that they did ages ago. No nation can now shut itself up from the surrounding world and trot round in the same old path of its fathers without interference. The time was when such could be done. Long established customs of hurtful character could formerly fence themselves in, and do their evil work with social impunity. Knowledge was then confined and enjoyed by the privileged few, and the multitude walked on in mental darkness. But a change has now come over the affairs of mankind. Walled cities and empires have become unfashionable. The arm of commerce has borne away the gates of the strong city. Intelligence is penetrating the darkest corners of the globe. It makes its pathway over and under the sea, as well as on the earth. Wind, steam, and lightning are its chartered agents. Oceans no longer divide, but link nations together. From Boston to London is now a holiday excursion. Space is comparatively annihilated.—Thoughts expressed on one side of the Atlantic are distinctly heard on the other.

The far off and almost fabulous Pacific rolls in grandeur at our feet. The Celestial Empire, the mystery of ages, is being solved. The fiat of the Almighty, “Let there be Light,” has not yet spent its force. No abuse, no outrage whether in taste, sport or avarice, can now hide itself from the all-pervading light. The iron shoe, and crippled foot of China must be seen in contrast with nature. Africa must rise and put on her yet unwoven garment. ‘Ethiopia, shall, stretch. out her hand unto God.” In the fervent aspirations of William Lloyd Garrison, I say, and let every heart join in saying it:

God speed the year of jubilee
The wide world o’er!
When from their galling chains set free,
Th’ oppress’d shall vilely bend the knee,
And wear the yoke of tyranny
Like brutes no more.
That year will come, and freedom’s reign,
To man his plundered rights again
Restore.

God speed the day when human blood
Shall cease to flow!
In every clime be understood,
The claims of human brotherhood,
And each return for evil, good,
Not blow for blow;
That day will come all feuds to end,
And change into a faithful friend
Each foe.

God speed the hour, the glorious hour,
When none on earth
Shall exercise a lordly power,
Nor in a tyrant’s presence cower;
But to all manhood’s stature tower,
By equal birth!
That hour will come, to each, to all,
And from his Prison-house, to thrall
Go forth.

Until that year, day, hour, arrive,
With head, and heart, and hand I’ll strive,
To break the rod, and rend the gyve,
The spoiler of his prey deprive –
So witness Heaven!
And never from my chosen post,
Whate’er the peril or the cost,
Be driven.

From The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass, Volume II by Philip S. Foner

Gregory will speak with the Smithsonian’s Lonnie G. Bunch, director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, as part of the festival’s program, “Giving Voice: The Power of Words in African American Culture.”

Gregory is known for incorporating messages about social justice and equality in his comedic performances. I had the chance to speak with Gregory by telephone about his development as a comedian and how audiences have changed throughout his 40-year career.

From your perspective, how does comedy relate to the Folklife Festival theme of “Giving Voice: The Power of Words in African American Culture?”

Comedy don’t. Satire do. It’s broken down into two things. Comedy is when you and I exchange something, talking about our pain. For instance, we’re friends all our life, and you hit your finger with a hammer and break a bone. You go to the hospital and they straighten it up, operate, put a cast on it. Five years later, we’re sitting together, and laughing, and talking about how stupid that was. That’s the comedy between you and me. Now, you decide one day you’re going to do a whole satirical play on all the stupid things people do to hurt themselves. So then, that’s different than just a one-liner.

How did you learn to develop your style of satire?

Probably the most brilliant person at satire was the black minister. Think about it, the black minister does not have Hollywood writers and yet that black minister writes 52 sermons every year and never repeats. He doesn’t write the funny stuff in, but once he gets that rhythm—that humming—and then he starts talking about all the stupid things that have happened this week. I had a lot of people ask me how I learned. I was born before television. When the white comics came on TV, I didn’t identify with them. I thought that was some corny stuff they were doing, but they were the biggest things in America. Consequently, when people asked me where I learned it, I say I learned it from the black church. The black church wasn’t doing comedy, it was doing humor and social satire. They didn’t know it, but that’s what they were doing.

What was it like working in the early part of your career?

Hugh Hefner reached out and brought me in. Before that a black comic could not work a white night club. You could dance, you could sing, but you couldn’t stand flat-footed and talk. It was like a black person didn’t have the right to stand one-on-one and talk to white folks. But Sammy Davis, he could dance all over, sweat all over, and then stop and tell some jokes. But when Hefner brought me in, that’s the first time in the history of America that a black comic could stand flat-footed and talk to white folks. Now if you go back and listen to those records, we were hustlers—and I don’t mean hustlers in a negative sense—because it was all we were permitted to do. When Hefner cracked that color line, then the young comics that came up behind us weren’t hustlers, they had an art form.

More from Gregory after the jump.

How did you make the transition to using satire as a way to address issues in society?

See, now the switch wasn’t hard for me because I wasn’t planning all my life on being a comic. I wasn’t planning on using it to change nothing. I had always used humor. It’s like if everybody tells you, ‘Girl, you can really make cornbread.’ So ten years later, you’re a full-blown woman, and now you’re making cornbread and your number one buyer is Safeway. But you didn’t start making cornbread to sell it to Safeway. You were just making cornbread and Safeway said ‘God, this is better than what we have.’ Well, that’s what happened to me.

You can use social satire to break down all kinds of things, as long as you don’t pick on the underdog. Let’s say there’s a white comic who decides to do satire, but is putting down the negro. You can’t put down the underdog and survive. It just don’t work.

After more than 40 years in the business, how do you keep up with changing audiences?

First, I spent about a thousand dollars every week and a half buying newspapers. So I know everything. But here’s the difference: What I do now, I wouldn’t have been able to do 30 years ago or 50 years ago because of television. You see, a plane crashes in Afghanistan and that plane is in your living room in 30 minutes. So there’s no such thing as a dumb audience. There’s such a thing as an uneducated audience. You might have two PhD’s and this person might not have finished grade school, but you’re looking at the same news. Before that wasn’t there.

Before that, Shelley Berman sold a million records on “Coffee, Milk or Tea” about the airplane stewardesses. That wouldn’t have worked in the black community because 99.9 percent had never been on a plane. Today you can say anything you want to say about the airlines and my grandmother who’s 90 years old and hasn’t been on a plane, you’re not going to lose her because she knows what happens on airplanes.

Dick Gregory will speak at tomorrow evening at the Folklife Festival. In the event of rain, the program will be held in the Baird Auditorium at the National Museum of Natural History. For more information about the Festival, please click here.

Toni Blackman performs spoken word as part of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. Photo by Ashley Luthern.

Poet and hip-hop artist Toni Blackman brought her hot rhymes to an equally hot stage at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. As temperatures climbed into the upper 80s Thursday, Blackman read from her book of poetry, Inner Course: A  Plea for Real Love.

She also performed several spoken word pieces, and led the crowd in an energetic freestyle session. The audience-chosen topic was something everyone was feeling: the heat.

Blackman has worked for the U.S. State Department as a cultural ambassador and founded The Lyrical Embassy, which encompasses her music, poetry, book and experiences as an ambassador. She will make more appearances at the festival as part of Giving Voice, which celebrates African American oral traditions from radio to song to storytelling, including three today (June  26) at 11 a.m. in The Oratorium, 1 p.m. at the Radio Station and 2 p.m. at the Barbershop/Beauty Parlor.

I had a chance to speak with Blackman after her performance yesterday and asked her about the festival, oral tradition and her views of poetry and hip-hop.

What brings you to the Smithsonian Folklife Festival?

I lived in D.C. for many years. I went to Howard, and one of the first organizations to support my work with hip-hop ironically was the Smithsonian. Kim Chan, who was with the Washington Performing Arts Society, brought a program idea that we were working on to Smithsonian, and we ended up doing a major international hip-hop festival back in 1998. I’ve done stuff with the Anacostia Museum, the African-American Museum and for me, it’s sort of a coming home because I grew at the Smithsonian.

What role does poetry play in oral tradition?

Poetry plays a very critical role in the oral tradition, in that poets have helped to preserve the tradition. I think through contemporary spoken word, poetry has basically added fuel to this flame that was already flickering. It was there on the sideline, and the spoken word movement brought poetry back to the people. So that the guy who’s a postman, the woman who works as a manager at Foot Locker, the guy who’s a lawyer during the week, they, too, feel like they can be poets. I think that’s really important. And more important than that is just how many young people write poetry. Now, it’s just a given, like you play basketball, you play chess, you swim and you write poetry. I think that’s very exciting for the oral tradition.

How has hip-hop influenced oral tradition?

I believe that hip-hop is what rejuvenated interest in poetry. It was hip-hop and rap that motivated an entire generation of people to consider oral expression as an option for something to do with their time.

What is the relationship between poetry and spoken word?

I do agree with people who think that there is a distinction between poetry written for the page and poetry written for the stage. There’s that material which is written to be read and that material which is written to be heard. And I think it’s okay to acknowledge that. I think what’s important, as we acknowledge it, is that we don’t’ put one above the other. It is possible for both to coexist, but not necessarily always in the same venue. What’s special about the Festival is that it attracts artists who are rooted in the spirit of the art.

A Russian chain-mail vest worn by Russian governor of Alaska Alexander Baranov, courtesy of the National Museum of American History.

Russia has a certain mystique with its intriguing mix of old and new, east and west. Influenced by countries in the Middle East and Europe, Russian culture varies from the extravagance of czars to the utilitarianism of dictators.

This summer, the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery is featuring a fabulous exhibit, “Tsars and the East.” These are the exquisite, almost decadent, gifts that the Russian czars received from Iranian and Ottoman diplomats as they sought political favor from Moscow. Casting our eyes about the Mall, we decided to seek out some  Russian-related artifacts on view, or housed, within the collections of other Smithsonian museums.

The National Numismatic Collection of the Smithsonian at the National Museum of American History has the largest collection of coins, medals, decorations and paper currency in North America—including a sizable selection of Russian coins and medals. The Russian collection of more than 10,000 coins and 1,250 medals was once owned by the Grand Duke Georgii Mikhailovich, nephew of Czar Alexander II of Russia.

At the National Museum of American History, a chain-mail vest worn by the Russian governor of Alaska, Alexander Baranov, from 1799 to 1818 brings to life an often-overlooked history of the relationship between the U.S. and Russia. Alaska was then known as the Territory of Baranov or Russian America. In 1867, U.S. Secretary of State William Seward approved the purchase of Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million. The vest, which is currently not on view, was given to President Theodore Roosevelt by George Kostrometinov, an Alaskan of Russian descent, in 1906 and has been part of the Smithsonian collection ever since.

Artifacts from the Cold War, a more recent and well-known part of Russia-U.S. relations than the Alaska purchase, are on display in the National Museum of American History. Information about the nuclear arms race and its effects on everyday life in America is presented in the “Science and American Life” exhibition on the first floor of the museum.

Have you ever been to Russia? Tell us about the artifacts you brought home with you in the comments area below.

On June 19, 1865, Union General Gordon Granger arrived at Galveston, Texas, bringing news to the town that the Civil War had ended and that all slaves were free. This was nearly two and a half years after President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. Before long, the former slaves in southeastern Texas began to celebrate June 19th as Emancipation Day. Eventually, they shortened the name to Juneteenth.

Official Juneteenth Committee, East Woods Park, Austin, Texas, June 19, 1900. Courtesy Austin History Center, Austin Public Library.

An exhibit at the Anacostia Community Museum entitled Jubilee: African American Celebration features information and artifacts related to Emancipation Day festivities like Juneteenth and other African-American traditions.

“People can learn about different celebrations. It’s like looking at African-American history through the lens of these special celebrations, including Juneteenth,” said Robert Hall, associate director for education at the museum.

But Juneteenth isn’t just a historical holiday; modern celebrations are increasing throughout the country, said Cliff Robinson, founder of Juneteenth.com, a Web site that allows individuals or groups to post information and photos from Juneteenth celebrations.

“We’ve had people from all 50 states and around the world posting on our site,” Robinson said. “I’ve seen some celebrations that try to make it historic in terms of costume, but today it can be anything: a family dinner, a backyard barbecue and everything to a concert downtown or a citywide parade. It has expanded.”

I spoke with Dr. William Wiggins Jr., professor Emeritus of Folklore at Indiana University and author of Jubilation: African-American Celebrations in the Southeast, about the history and future of Juneteenth.

Why did it take so long for word of the Emancipation Proclamation to reach Texas?

One of the popular legends associated with that is that Lincoln dispatched Union soldiers to move throughout the South to spread the word, and it took until the 19th of June.

But I think on the other end, you could perhaps say it took so long because of the resistance to emancipation itself. Texas was one of the last outposts of slavery and Galveston is sort of the epicenter. In fact, one of the last fights in the Civil War was done in Galveston and the Union forces were repelled. There had been a big resistance all along and it was because of this fact that word got slowly to east Texas. Then Gordon Granger was dispatched with a group of Union soldiers and landed at Galveston and spread the word and proceeded to go up into east Texas. He gave the executive order that slavery was no longer official and people had to compensate slaves for their labor. Texas was just sort of the outlier and took some time.

More from Dr. Wiggins after the jump.

What were some of the first Juneteenth celebrations like? What food was served?

From the beginning to now, the food came from slave cuisine. One dish in particular was barbecue and the preparation and fixing of it harkens back to old days when a pit was dug, I would say about a foot deep, and it had saplings over it. They built a fire of oak and mesquite and whatever else that they wanted. They would place the coals on the floor of the pit and then on top of the pit, they would place a hog that had been killed, gutted and they would rotate its position. Starting off, the carcass would be cut-side down and skin side up and it would cook very, very slowly until the barbecuer would flip it.

Traditionally (cooking) was an all-night thing and they would be gathered by friends and sit around drinking spirited beverages. It emphasized the comaraderie and that barbecue would be the main dish. Then there was watermelon, too.

There was the strawberry pop. By any other name, it would be a picnic or Sunday dinner at its best. At the heart of it, just like turkey at Thanksgiving, the central entrée would be barbecue. And again, barbecue preparation has deep roots in slave culture.

How did Juneteenth celebrations spread out of Texas?

The movement of this celebration was part of a larger group of emancipation days across the south. The first movement, right around WWII, was westward. So where you had black families moving to California from east Texas, and southwest Arkansas and Oklahoma, to work in the shipyards, or to work in the airplane factories, then Juneteenth started cropping up in those states.

When Dr. King had the Poor People’s March and Ralph Abernathy promised King (who died April 4, 1968) that this march would be completed and it was. So they made it to Washington and they set up a camp on the mall. Everything that could go wrong did and they had to leave at the end of the summer. So how can you leave with some sense of honor? It was late June and there were people from all different states in that village for that summer, so they had a group from Texas and someone said ‘Why don’t we have a Juneteenth celebration,’ which again is a way to address poverty and freedom and harkening back to our past. They had this closing celebration, which was held on that day, and a large number of entertainers performed.

My theory is that these delegates for the summer took that idea of the celebration back to their respective communities. So I know, for example, there was one in Milwaukee, and looking at the newspapers after that summer, they started having regular Juneteenth celebrations. The Chicago Defender had an editorial that it should be a regular idea. My feeling is that because it was used to close the Poor Peoples Campaign that the idea and so forth was taken back by different participants in that march and it took root around the country. It has taken on a life of its own.

What is similar or different about the Juneteenth celebrations in the past and present?

In terms of the date and coming back, it is just a good time with homemade ice cream, baseball games and all that sort of stuff. What has changed and what has been put in there, is the whole shift, and not so-subtle shift, to emphasizing the family. These events, more and more, are being seen as instances to reaffirm and reestablish family ties. The weekend invariably would end with church service or, just like Memorial Day or Fourth of July, a visit to family burial grounds to partake in the rich telling of the stories of the ancestors.