rtifacts have many stories to tell, but some of them are incomplete, contradictory, or confusing. Some people spend their professional lives trying to decipher these stories. Often the clues are found in the physical makeup of the artifact itself. Sometimes the real story is how it was used, or the way it changed how people interact with each other.

In this section scholars address different perspectives on the African American experience by looking at artifacts, documents, photographs, and other aspects of material culture. They offer a number of different approaches to the subject, but all of them share a passion for working directly with artifacts. Historians share painstaking research into archives, collections, and other sources of primary materials. Anthropologists show how different artifacts have changed the way that people interact with each other and the world around them. Oral historians offer us people that speak movingly from their own experience. Archeologists show us some of the backbreaking and exquisitely fragile work being done on different historical sites around the country.

The scholars here represent a wide range of disciplines. But each one offers a unique and insightful perspective on the world around us. We invite you to spend a few moments with each one.