UMBC’s Library Gallery will present a new exhibition in September that reflects what it meant to experience leisure and travel as a Black American during the Jim Crow era.
“Picturing Mobility: Black Tourism and Leisure During the Jim Crow Era” is an exhibition curated by Elizabeth Patton and will be on view from Sept. 2, 2025 through Dec. 19, 2025 at UMBC’s Albin O. Kuhn Library Gallery. Using photographs, oral histories, audio, video, and memorabilia, the exhibition will create an in-depth and multi-faceted narrative reflecting Black tourism and leisure in communities along the mid-Atlantic region from the 1920s to the 1960s.
More than personal memories, these artifacts demonstrate powerful resistance by Black people. Documenting and participating in leisure and mobility gives present-day viewers a glimpse of how Black people persisted to move freely and embrace joy, relaxation, and entertainment in a society determined to exclude and oppress them.
The intense racial segregation of the Jim Crow era, based on the 1896 Supreme Court decision in Plessy v. Ferguson, helped keep the white supremacist mindset — which never recovered from the outlawing of slavery — in the mainstream. This made enjoying things like vacations, movies, restaurants, amusement parks, pools, and more not just difficult for Black Americans, but potentially life-threatening. Guidebooks like The Negro Travelers’ Green Book became essential for them to find safe and welcoming accommodations and relaxation spots.
Rather than the posed, professional studio portraits that were customary at the time, “Picturing Mobility” features snapshots documenting how everyday people lived in relaxed moments of their personal lives.
“The photographs show mobility through moments of relaxation, happiness, amusement, and community, challenging the dominant narrative of Black life during Jim Crow as defined primarily by restriction and struggle,” reads the press release. “This is not an attempt to overlook the reality of Black life, instead, this exhibition recognizes the power of these images to affirm Black humanity and offer meaningful insights into life lived fully despite the oppressive nature of segregation.”
In addition to photographs and materials from UMBC Special Collections, this exhibition features loans and exhibition content from AFRO American Newspapers Archives, Banneker-Douglass-Tubman Museum, Maryland Center for History and Culture, Morgan State University, New York Public Library, Virginia State Parks, and more.
Additionally, there are two public programs that will be held in association with this exhibition:
Friday, Sept. 15, 5 – 7 p.m.: Curatorial Talk by Elizabeth Patton and Opening Reception, both hosted by the Library Gallery, and
Thursday, Dec. 4, 5 p.m.: Panel Discussion, “Documenting Black Leisure and Preserving Community Archives”, with a reception to follow. Hosted by the Library Gallery, details will be announced closer to the date.
Admission to “Picturing Mobility” and public programs is free. For driving directions and parking information, please visit this link.
Library Gallery hours:
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Thursday: 12 – 7 p.m.
Saturday and Sunday: 12 – 5 p.m.
More information is also available on UMBC’s Arts Calendar.
