Q: Are there any objects that you still need to do the work of
the museum? --Allen Champion - Tulsa, Oklahoma A: I would not
say that the Museum "needs" additional objects to fulfill its
mission of "using objects of intolerance to teach tolerance and
promote social justice." The Museum is home to more than 9,000
objects; therefore, it is not surprising that the Museum has, in
each section, the requisite objects to teach the lessons that we
want to teach. But I must confess that there are some objects
that I desire. During the several decades that I collected the
"contemptible collectibles" that would become the foundation of
the Jim Crow Museum, I saw many objects that I could not afford.
One was an 1874 jigsaw puzzle, sold by the McLoughlin Company of
New York. The puzzle was called Chopped Up Niggers. Although the
black people depicted were caricatured, the worst part of the
puzzle was the name, which had both an innocent meaning-in need
of assembly-and a sinister meaning-the threat of violence. In
any even