Current University of Detroit Mercy students, faculty, and staff are invited to stop by the McNichols Campus Library to see “Equal Justice Under Law and the Fight to Hold Government Accountable,” which runs through mid-March. The exhibit complements art from University Ministry’s Healing Wall and was created in conjunction with the University’s slate of virtual Black History Month events.  

"Equal Justice Under Law" shows the cyclic nature of American history when it comes to justice toward Black people, borrowing graphic elements from newspaper and political cartoon styling of the periods. The exhibit also taps a range of references from the Black Abolitionist Archive and other sources, including a list of Jim Crow laws and hand-outs of the Alabama and Mississippi literacy tests used to prevent Black people from voting.  

Each of the four display windows illustrates a different phase in the struggle, starting with the Constitutional concept “All men are created equal,” an ideal that fell short but remained aspirational to free and enslaved Black people. The second window considers the 14th, 15th and 16th Amendments, the beginning and end of Reconstruction, and increasing racial animus. The third looks at the ushering in of Jim Crow through its slow dissolution with the landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, newspaper announcements of MLK and Malcolm X’s deaths, and the 1967 Detroit Uprising. Finally, the fourth case pays tribute to the Black Lives Matter movement and those whose lives have been stolen in acts of racially motivated violence. It also serves as a reminder of the healing and advocacy work that remains.                                          

Interested in learning more about the subjects of this exhibit but not sure where to start? Contact a Detroit Mercy librarian!