NSU’s African Presence Art Exhibition kicks off Black History Month

(L to R) Babacar MBow, African Presence Curator; NSU Trustee Sam Morrison; Greg Sidberry, Committee Member and Rosalind Withers, president of Withers Collection Museum & Gallery

The celebration of Black History Month 2014 at NSU kicked off last week with the opening reception of the 11th Annual African Presence Art Exhibition. This year’s exhibition, “Witness to History: The Photography of Ernest Withers,” features the artist’s capturing of significant periods in American history including Jim Crow segregation, the Memphis blues night life, the Negro Baseball League and the Civil Rights Movement.

The opening reception, attended by approximately 300 people, featured welcome remarks from NSU President George L. Hanbury II, remarks about the photography by curator Babacar MBow, and a historical perspective of the era by Charles Zelden, professor at Farquhar College of Arts & Sciences.

The daughter of Ernest Withers, Rosalind Withers, president/board chair of the Withers Collection Museum & Gallery in Memphis, Tennessee, also attended the event and shared touching stories about her father.

“My father’s photograph of Emmett Till is credited with jump starting the Civil Rights Movement,” she said. “The photo was seen by people all over the world and really shined a light on the injustices in the south.” Till was a 14 year old African American who was murdered and found in Mississippi’s Tallahatchie River in 1955 for allegedly flirting with a white woman. His mother gave permission for Wither’s gruesome photo of Emmett’s body to be published on the cover of Jet magazine.)

The culmination of African Presence’s opening reception was the viewing of the 75 piece exhibition in the Adolfo & Marisela Cotilla Gallery, Sherman Library.

“Witness to History: The Photography of Ernest Withers,” will be on display through Sunday, March 16, 2014.

For a complete listing of Black History Month events, visit www.nova.edu/blackhistory.