Let Your Motto Be Resistance: African American Portraits

Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, almost all black Americans embraced Garnet’s plea to “let your motto be resistance,” based on “the circumstances that surround you.” The words of this nineteenth century political activist and Underground Railroad conductor are the essence of the exhibition, Let Your Motto Be Resistance: African American Portraits. Let Your Motto Be Resistance is the first of four exhibitions being presented as part of the Atlanta History Center’s Civil War to Civil Rights exhibition series.

Let Your Motto Be Resistance: African American Portraits features 69 stunning photographic portraits that trace 150 years of U.S. history through the lives of well-known African Americans, including abolitionists, artists, scientists, authors, statesmen, entertainers, and sports figures. These revealing photographs illuminate the creative and courageous ways that African Americans redefined the history of the United States through struggle, accommodation, and resistance.