Dr. Maurice Berger
Maurice Berger, a renowned international art scholar and curator, was also a powerful voice against overt and subtle racism in the art world and the broader society. Among the most prominent exhibitions Berger curated was “For All the World to See: Visual Culture and the Struggle for Civil Rights,”
housed in 2011 at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington.
Berger grew up on New York City’s Lower East Side among Black and Puerto Rican families. He dedicated much of his life to being conscious of how race determines opportunities, attitudes and much more, not only in his life but also in the life of others. His writing, exploring those influences, was direct and provocative. Berger asked, for instance, “Are Art Museums Racist?” in a 1990 essay in the magazine Art in America. In a 2017 essay, he talked about the racism on display in the deadly “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. Berger wrote the acclaimed book White Lies: Race and the Myths of Whiteness, published in 2000. He was a senior research scholar at the Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture at the University of Maryland Baltimore County. He died at his home in Craryville, New York. Berger was 63.
Chadwick Boseman
The historically Black Howard University campus in Washington, D.C. was electric on the 150th commencement day in 2018. Chadwick Boseman, one of its native sons had returned to deliver the main address, fresh off the groundbreaking superhero film “Black Panther.” In a way, the regal, young actor who played T’Challa had returned to his Wakanda — Howard, “The Mecca.”
Boseman, a 2000 graduate, had admired T’Challa and Marvel’s “Black
