"I Am A Man" – this slogan was used by black waste collectors in 1968 in Memphis, when they went on strike against inhumane working conditions and discrimination. The Civil Rights Movement’s iconic banner is one of more than 3000 original objects exhibited at the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Whether it be the jougs and shackles worn by female African slaves on a sunken Portuguese ship, the coffin of the boy Emmett Till murdered in 1955, the red convertible belonging to Chuck Berry or the nine gold medallions of Carl Lewis – all objects are real, giving them a special aura. On the tour through the celebrated building of David Adjaye in the shape of a Yoruba-crown, from its sub-terrain section on slavery, upwards through time to the luminous top floor dedicated to music, theatre and art, they envision the African-American history – the egregious beginnings, the fight for freedom and justice and the substantial influences on modern (pop-)culture. Opened right in the center of Washington in 2016, the museum has become a place of pilgrimage for the 3+ million visitors per year who believe in America’s ideals, but has also become a metaphor for everything happening in the country today.

The director Oliver Hardt from Frankfurt was already present at LICHTER Film festival in 2013 with his film “The United States of Hoodoo”. Now, he is back with his documentary about the National Museum for African-American History and Culture in Washington, produced for ZDF/arte. British star-architect David Adjaye, often featured in the film, is not unknown in Frankfurt either. In 2012, he presented the architectural study of his vision for a cultural campus in Bockenheim.