Unity Square
7 min | Role: creative direction, post-production
"We decided to take a stand."
The sit-in movement, started in 1960 by four college students in Greensboro, NC, quickly spread nationwide, leading the way for the civil rights struggle of the 1960's.
Unity Square is the story of a social movement as told by its leaders.
Permanent exhibit at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.
PRESS
The Washington Post
A new, 30,000-square-foot civics lesson at the National Museum of American History
June 22, 2017 at 6:00 a.m. EDT
The second floor of the National Museum of American History’s west wing reopens Wednesday with a renewed purpose: to tell the story of American democracy and encourage people to participate. It even has a textbook-worthy name: “The Nation We Build Together.”
...The only historical artifact in “Unity Square” is the “whites only” lunch counter where, in 1960, four black college students staged a peaceful sit-in in Greensboro, N.C., that ignited a nationwide movement for desegregation. The counter, which was moved from another part of the museum, now features a mirror that transforms into a movie screen every 20 minutes or so and plays a film about the protests.
“This space is really about being inspired by people in the past who have participated in our democracy and changed America and even changed the world,” Smith says. “We hope this is where people will take what they have learned on the entire floor and reflect on their place in shaping America’s future.”
National Museum of American History, 1400 Constitution Ave. NW; “The Nation We Build Together” opens Wed., free.