Delta Blues Press Release

February 14, 2025

Delta Blues Museum to host "Am I An American or Am I Not?" traveling exhibit

Clarksdale, Mississippi

Reception on Feb. 25th to feature special presentation from the Fred T. Korematsu Institute

Photo by Dorothea Lange, Centerville, CA, May 9, 1942. National Archives 537552

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

[Clarksdale, Mississippi - February 14, 2025] - "Am I An American or Am I Not?" is an engaging traveling exhibit on display at Delta Blues Museum beginning February 16th. The exhibit "asks visitors to think about examples of unfair treatment from our country's past and present in order to protect the American promises of life, liberty, and justice for all." The exhibition's title comes from Fred Korematsu, who famously challenged the mass imprisonment of over 125,000 Japanese Americans during WWII. When faced with criminal charges for not following the military orders to leave his home without due process, the U.S. born citizen remembered his Constitutional rights and asked, "Am I an American or am I not?"

Delta Blues Museum is honored to have been selected to host this exhibit through March 16th. A free public reception will be held on Tuesday, February 25th in the Museum Gallery, sponsored by Visit Clarksdale and featuring a special presentation from Courtney Peagler, vice president and director of education at the Fred T. Korematsu Institute. Ms. Peagler will be featured in a number of speaking engagements across the city that day and will lead a tour of the exhibit before the Museum reception. Having earned her bachelor's degree in psychology from Harvard and her master's in Educational Communication and Technology from New York University's Steinhardt School of Education, Ms. Peagler has worked since 2019 for the Institute, leading major grant initiatives and program strategy and organizing educator workshops and programs. As a descendant of Japanese Americans forced to leave the West Coast, Ms. Peagler is committed to ensuring the shameful history of the WWII Incarceration is not forgotten and that its lessons are applied to the fight for social justice for all.

OPENING RECEPTION AND PRESENTATION
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25th
Delta Blues Museum Gallery
5:00P - 7:00P
sponsored by Visit Clarksdale
**free and open to the public**

"Am I An American or Am I Not?" was developed by the Fred T. Korematsu Institute, Exhibit Envoy, and AGH Arts Strategies and was funded, in part, by grants from the U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service Japanese American Confinement Sites Grant Program, Asian Americans Advancing Justice (AAJC), the JA Community Foundation, and PwC.

Photo by Dorothea Lange, San Francisco, California, April 20, 1942. National Archives 536053

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About the Korematsu Institute

The Fred T. Korematsu Institute (KI) is a national education advocacy organization committed to advancing racial equity, social justice, and human rights for all. Through educational programs, media and exhibits, and advocacy, the organization honors Fred's legacy by encouraging others to follow his lead and, as he said: "Don't be afraid to stand up for what is right." For more information please visit www.korematsuinstitute.org.

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About Delta Blues Museum

Established in 1979 by the Carnegie Public Library Board of Trustees and re-organized as a stand-alone museum in 1999, the Delta Blues Museum is Mississippi's first music museum. A 2013 recipient of the IMLS National Medal for Museum and Library Services--the nation's highest honor for museum and library service to the community - and a 2014 recipient of the National Arts & Humanities' Youth Program Award, the Delta Blues Museum is dedicated to creating a welcoming place where visitors find meaning, value and perspective by exploring the history and heritage of the unique American musical art form, the Blues. The Museum is also recognized as a Great River Road Interpretive Center. For more information on events or programs, please call (662) 627-6820, or visit the Museum web site at www.deltabluesmuseum.org.

Members of the press may register in the PRESS ROOM on the Museum's website to access further information, downloadable images and related materials.

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This newsletter is supported in part by funding from the Mississippi Arts Commission, a state agency, and, in part, from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.

This site is made possible through support from the Mississippi Arts Commission, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Rock River Foundation.