CURRENT ISSUE
September 2016
Features
:focal(2416x1089:2417x1090)/https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/filer/42/96/42964a6d-02b7-465e-a4f5-6a650bbc83fb/sep2016_c02_migration.jpg)
The Road to Freedom
It was the greatest migration in U.S. history. And when millions of African-Americans fled the South in search of a better life, they remade the nation in ways that are still being felt
/https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/filer/29/70/2970e1b1-d895-4ed4-89e6-eb5c5264653f/sep2016_a13_objects.jpg)
Objects of Power
These artifacts each tell a part of the African-American story
:focal(2763x2302:2764x2303)/https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/filer/51/ee/51ee3608-6f5a-41a9-93d5-3b7d126f6bc2/sep2016_b04_greatdismalswamp.jpg)
Hell and High Water
Deep in the Great Dismal Swamp, a maverick archaeologist discovers traces of a mysterious refuge for runaway slaves
:focal(957x1171:958x1172)/https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/filer/81/8f/818fade4-1a10-4d60-a3a6-9f5df39b7e95/sep2016_i01_blues.jpg)
Black and Blues
Is the great African-American music of the rural South really dying? A rollicking visit to a Memphis blues festival strikes a surprising chord
Departments
Black Tweets Matter
“Black Twitter” has become a powerful force for political activism, lightning-fast cultural commentary—and a place to just hang out
Making a Way Out of No Way
From courting Chuck Berry in Missouri to diving for a lost slave ship off Africa, here’s the inside story of the nation’s new African-American museum