The concept for my shrine was built on the basis of a family tree, a tree of my history as well as Black History.  For me this concept of history is one and the same because Black History is part of my family history.  My shrine represents the family trees of two periods in Black History, before and after slavery, as well as before and after the Civil Rights Movement.  At the bottom of my shrine I have a number of things that are symbols for me of Black History.  I have an African-patterned cloth at the bottom representing what the tree is grounded in.  The roots of the tree are represented as nails with words, for example, Africa and slavery, written on them in red.  The significance of the words are used to represent where African-Americans came from, as well as the blood that was shed over hundreds of years, beginning with the untold number of Africans who died coming over to America.  The bottom of the tree is painted red and there are chains at the bottom that are used to portray symbols like that of the nails.

In the tree are pictures of people that stand out to me in history.  I wanted to recognize people like Thurgood Marshall, who made ways for African-Americans in the judicial system, as well as inventors that are not recognized in history books for their accomplishments.  Around the tree are words, for example, KKK, slave vs. free, ships, nigger and broken, which represent the bondage that African Americans had imposed on them through people and circumstances, as well as stereotypes.  On the limbs of one branch are the words strange fruit, representative of a song Billie Holiday sang about lynching in the South.

The top of the tree represents African Americans during and after the Civil Rights Movement.  Pictures of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X are present to represent the leaders of a movement for the betterment of Black people’s lives.  The evolution of children from being mis-educated to educated is represented by the words mis-education and education.  The importance of family, especially my family, is portrayed through a picture of my own family.  The importance of women to not only the movement but also life is portrayed through a picture of my mother who is "the light of my life."  The advancement of African Americans in sports and entertainment is evident through a picture of Venus and Serena Williams, as well as Halle Berry.  The picture of a blue sky in the background represents hope for the future for myself and my people.

I used two other pictures to build my shrine, photos that I had taken.  I am fascinated with nature so I have always taken photos of the sky, rivers and trees changing during the seasons. One photo I took during my freshman year of college. This picture represents to me new beginnings, which can relate to the attitudes of people during the Civil Rights Movement. The other photo that I took is of the East River in New York City. In the photo, the river as well as a bridge in the distance can be seen. I wanted this picture to represent the bridges that I had to cross to get where I am today, as well as the people who crossed these bridges before me.

NOTE: As art historian Julie Levin Caro explained Jean Lacy's Welcome to My Ghetto Land, "the ancestors sit in the upper windows of the tenement and watch over a young girl seated in the window to the right of the doorway who is dressed in white as an initiate. The ancestor figures represented here refer to the knowledge, guidance, and support elders have provided to the younger generation" (Levin, 20). When I saw this piece it remind me of an older woman in the building in which I grow up, who was always hanging out of her windows. My friends and I always thought of her as "noisy old Ms. Jones," but she looked out for us without our knowing it. Since we were only allowed to go as far as the front of the building, she kept us from getting into unnecessary trouble.

Postscript by Tiffany Bligen

During the Yager Museum presentation when classmates were explaining their own concepts, I did not imagine that I would feel so strongly about other people's shrines, as well as my own. I liked and could appreciate everyone's presentations but there is one that sticks out in my mind that really struck my emotions. Sarah's presentation caused me to actually find tears in my eyes because I could relate to parts of what she talked about. [See Sarah Oster]  I can remember when I was a child that my mother dressed me in nothing but pink frilly dresses so that I learned to acquire my taste for pink clothing. I remember being upset if I got even a small spot on my dress and that was just from doing frivolous things. I can only imagine what the Black girl felt while she was being beaten and then to get up from that beating to find her [pink] dress bloodied with her own blood.  I think of the children that had to grow up being so cautious of what they said or did and where they went. I think of these children and than I look at today's generation of children growing up, as well as my own generation. We seem to take for granted the fact that some of us have the possibility of getting an education or eating in a diner and having whites serve us. Today's generation has developed a collective amnesia about our own history because they either don't care or don't know.

Sarah Oster's Shrine, "Children of the Civil Rights Movement."