Black History exhibit reveals a racist and violent past

Despite the downpour of rain, students and local patrons at the Long Beach City College TTC campus reviewed the Forgotten Images: Story of Slavery & Black America exhibit held in the campus’ student union area on Feb. 19. 

The exhibit featured antique items that were commonly used during the era of slavery, as well as in the Civil Rights era.

With a collection of roughly 20,000 artifacts in total, the owner of the exhibit, David McLucas, believes the event was held in observance of Black History Month and has been featured on campus and other Long Beach public schools for the last 12 years.

“It started from attending a local flea market in Long Beach. There was a man selling objects, cast-iron banks that were animated figures of black people. It was when I turned the bank around that I saw it reveal some explicit language towards our people,” said McLucas.

Some of the artifacts featured in the exhibit were iron collars that were placed on slaves while being transported to their next destination, a civil rights era portion that includes exhibits of civil rights leaders like Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and a KKK suit.

A shackled collar from 1857 is one of the artifacts featured in the Forgotten Images: Story of Slavery & Black America exhibit on Feb. 19. The collar is labeled to be from Georgia plantation owners Jenkin & Hoyle. (Keith Lewis)

^{Forgotten Images: Story of Slavery & Black America exhibit showed many artifacts such as a real Ku Klux Klan robe on Feb. 19. (Keith Lewis)}

“The purpose of this exhibit is to allow people of all walks of life to be aware of Black history, and not take for granted what was sacrificed for our own lives today,” McLucas said.

^{One exhibit featured in the Forgotten Images: Story of Slavery & Black America exhibit was of the segregated water fountains that were found in the southern United States during the Jim Crow era. It was against the law for Black people to drink from the same water fountain as a white person. (Keith Lewis)}

Another segment features water fountains that were used during segregation which only allowed white students to drink from and a replica of a slave plantation bell. In the past, these particular bells were a sound that would echo throughout the day on the plantations as a form of communication.  

Lynette Johnson, who works with the exhibit said, “This bell rang when slaves got up, went to eat and went to work on the plantation field, pretty much anytime the owners needed to communicate with slaves.”

^{Forgotten Images: Story of Slavery & Black America exhibit featured a plantation bell on Feb. 19. The plantation bell was an item that was used to communicate with slaves throughout the plantation fields. (Keith Lewis)}

While in the past, the bell was a control mechanism that plantation owners used to manipulate slaves, McLucas shared, “Today, when we ring the bell, we like to think of it more of a time of remembrance.”

Rather than think about how it was specifically used for, “it’s turned into a way to honor our loved ones before us,” said McLucas. 

Forgotten Images provides those in attendance the opportunity to get a rare glimpse at a part of history that our country is trying to hide and reframe. 

On Mar. 27, 2025, the White House passed the executive order to change many museums’ content from the claims that “under this historical revision, our Nation’s unparalleled legacy of advancing liberty, individual rights, and human happiness is reconstructed as inherently racist, sexist, oppressive, or otherwise irredeemably flawed.” 

This executive order aims to “remove improper ideology from such properties, and (the U.S. vice-president) shall recommend to the President any additional actions necessary to fully effectuate such policies.”

This exhibit is one of many that aim to depict unfiltered artifacts and history.

^{Forgotten Images: Story of Slavery & Black America exhibit shows a plaque made of iron showcasing the level of racism that was displayed during the Jim Crow era. (Keith Lewis)}

A former LBCC student at the art exhibit expressed what it was like to experience the history presented with not much prior knowledge. 

“I have mixed feelings about how far we have come and a feeling of distance but at the same time closer to history than before,” said Kacey Chea. 

Chea continued, “I still can’t grasp all of it because I am not educated enough, but it’s eye-catching, and I felt a sense of self-reflection.”

Forgotten Images will visit LBCC’s LAC campus on Mar. 10.