FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 1, 2005

Press Contacts
202-653-4632
Eileen Maxwell, emaxwell@imls.gov
Institute of Museum and Library Services

212-491-2259
Laini Madhubuti lmadhubuti@nypl.org
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture

Ground Breaking New Web Site on African American Migration Experience Ushers in Black History Month

Washington, DC— The Institute of Museum and Library Services is proud to announce its support of In Motion: The African-American Migration Experience launched today in honor of African American History Month. Created by New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, the groundbreaking new Web site makes accessible to the general public more than 16,500 pages of essays, books, articles, and manuscripts, 8,300 illustrations, 100 lesson plans, and 60 maps that will help users understand the peoples, places, and the events that have shaped African America’s migration traditions of the past four hundred years.

The project is made possible in part by a $2.4 million dollar grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services with the support of the Congressional Black Caucus. Other project components include the book, In Motion: The African-American Migration Experience, released by National Geographic in January 2005; a Black History Month education kit comprised of illustrations and photographs, maps, lesson plans and a bibliography; and an exhibition in the Schomburg Center Exhibition Hall. Through images, maps, narratives and music, the exhibition presents, chronicles, and interprets the migratory movements that have formed and transformed the African-American community and the nation in the last century. Visit the Web site at www.inmotionaame.org.

Harry Belafonte world-renowned actor, singer, producer, human rights activist, and son of Jamaican immigrants who spent his childhood years in Jamaica joined Paul LeClerc, President of the New York Public library, Howard Dodson, Director of The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and Mamie Bittner, Director of Public and Legislative Affairs of the Institute of Museum and Library Services at a press conference to mark the public launch of The Schomburg Center’s In Motion: The African-American Migration Experience project at The New York Public Library today. The gathering ushered in Black History Month by celebrating the 35 million African-Americans who have been participants in or are heirs to the migrations that have shaped this country and the African Diaspora.