Colorado antique store owner under fire for racist merchandise
CORTEZ, Colo. (KRQE) – The owner of a southern Colorado antique store is under fire. People are outraged over what they consider to be racist merchandise found inside her store. Signs that read, “Colored Seated in Rear,” “We Serve Colored Carry Out Only,” and “Public Swimming Pool White Only.” These are the kind of signs that Cheryl Dean, owner of the Antique Corral in Cortez, Colorado, was selling in her store.
Along with the signs, there were also figurines of plantation and segregation-era caricatures. “I”ve had them off and on in my store. I bought them from a wholesaler,” said Dean. Dean says she’s sold this kind of merchandise in her store for 15 years. But now, pictures of the items are gaining a lot of negative attention on social media. People are calling the merchandise racist and demanding Dean pull the items from her shelves. Dean says people are blowing it out of proportion. “If you don’t like it, go away. I don’t get in your life,” said Dean.
KRQE News 13 asked Dean if she thinks her inventory is offensive. “Not at all, I mean there’s stores that sell black memorabilia,” said Dean. However, members of the University of New Mexico’s African Studies Department say just because they’re sold everywhere, doesn’t mean they’re appropriate. “The more you perpetuate these kinds of images, the easier it is to justify the subordination of black populations in the United States,” said Dr. Sheryl Felecia Means.
Dean says her last two signs sold Wednesday after receiving all of the publicity online. She says she doesn’t plan to restock the signs because the wholesaler she bought them from no longer sells them.
https://www.krqe.com/news/national/colorado-antique-store-owner-under-fire-for-racist-merchandise/
= new reply since forum marked as read
The stuff is sold all over the place anyway. 
FAMU is a historically black university so when the state decided to create an archive of African American items, they were chosen:
In 1971, the Florida Legislature mandated the creation of a repository to “serve the state by collecting and preserving source material on and about African Americans from ancient to present times.” This mandate gave birth to what would later become the Black Archives Research Center and Museum. The center was founded in 1976 by Florida A&M University history professor, Dr. James N. Eaton. It officially opened in historic Carnegie Library on FAMU’s campus. Since that time, the Black Archives has served as a research center for individuals of various ages, ethnicities, and interests. By functioning both as a repository for archival records and a museum for historical regalia, the center continues to render academic support to educational institutions, civic, political, religious and social groups, as well as, public and private businesses throughout Florida and the nation.
Although designated as a statewide facility, the Black Archives quickly evolved into an important regional, national and international research center for studies pertaining to African-American culture and history. Due to generous contributions from the public, the center’s holdings consist of more than 500,000 individual archival records and more than 5,000 individual museum artifacts. The center is one of 10 black archives in the United States and is one of the largest repositories relating to African-American history and culture in the Southeast. More than 160,000 people visit the center annually, or are educated through the Archives’ numerous outreach programs. Many reference requests and visitors to the museum include people from throughout the United States and other parts of the world including Africa, Canada, England, Germany, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Switzerland, and the West Indies.
More: Meek Eaton Black Archives at Florida A & M University
(Note: I had to use the embedded link since the URL includes a question mark which breaks the link is posted directly.)
The archive is housed in a Carnegie Library - very appropriate given the history of Tallahassee. At one point Carnegie offered to give the town a library. Tallahassee leaders refused. Their rationale was that they already had a subscription library accessible by wealthy whites who could afford the fees, and the state library intended for use by the legislature. With Florida State University and Florida A & M University, the white leaders did not see any reason to accept a library that would have been mandated to be available to all.
This meant that the capitol city of Florida did not get a public library until 1955. For the first 20 or so years it was housed in the old Elks Club building, then it was "upgraded" to the basement of a dying mall. 1991 they finally moved into a dedicated building, although several branch libraries had been established by then - one of the first was in a historically black area.
Meanwhile, when Carnegie was refused, he offered a library to FAMU, which they accepted. That meant that the poor white citizens of the town had less access to the library than the black community. Ironic, huh?
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — An iron collar that kept slaves in bondage. A branding iron that marked human beings as someone’s property. A photograph of black babies captioned as “alligator bait.” A fine china plate with gold lettering that says, “KKK ‘God Give Us Men.’”
They’re among the artifacts of slavery and segregation collected by NFL Hall of Famer and retired Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Alan Page and his wife, Diane Sims Page. They went on display this month in time for Super Bowl visitors and the thousands of other people expected to flock to downtown Minneapolis for the festivities. The exhibit, “TESTIFY: Americana from Slavery to Today,” runs through Feb. 6 at the Minneapolis Central Library.
While a sign at the entrance warns that some items inside might be disturbing, there are also messages of hope and promise. There’s a banner that was held by a mourner in 1865, when a funeral train took President Abraham Lincoln’s body home to Illinois. The banner reads, “Our Country Shall Be One Country!” Page said it moved him to tears when he first saw it.
“For me it transports me back to that time and that place,” Alan Page said.
Signs that once enforced segregation in the South hang from a wall down the center of the gallery. They designated restrooms as “white” or “colored,” and marked the “colored waiting room” at train and bus stations. Just across from it is an assembly of vibrant pictures by black artists, showing how African-Americans reclaimed control over their own narrative. Diane Page said the contrast between the “oppressive and expressive” is deliberate.
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https://apnews.com/5a2dc484a38c4c49814a8c2ff0d682f7/Alan-Page-exhibits-slavery-artifacts-in-time-for-Super-Bowl
"It puts in context what we're seeing today. We have to confront it. We have to have conversations about it." - Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Alan Page
