Let Your Motto Be Resistance

“Let your motto be resistance! resistance! resistance! No oppressed people have ever secured their liberty without resistance. What kind of resistance you had better make, you must decide by the circumstances that surround you, and according to the suggestion of expediency.” This powerful quote from Henry Highland Garnet inspired the title of this book. Dr. Deborah Willis—photographer, African American photography historian, African American culture curator, and member of the Scholarly Advisory Committee for the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC)—assembles a striking collection of portraits of distinguished people in our nation’s history in this book. Dr. Willis’ exhibit of the same title, shown at the National Portrait Gallery from 2007 through 2008, was the inaugural exhibition for the NMAAHC. The photographs, taken by a mixture of renowned, abstruse, or anonymous photographers, offer a glimpse of the nation's history through an African American lens. The introduction of the book is by Lonnie G. Bunch III, the founding director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture; the book also includes biographies, poetry, and commentary from a variety of scholars.