We're Still Here, Derrick Adams

“Poet and musician Gil Scott-Heron wrote that ‘The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.’ I feel Derrick Adams is ‘televising’ the Black experience. Because of television, Emmett Till’s story was felt and seen all over. It changed journalism forever.” —Maggie Brown-Peoples, Curatorial Assistant The growing popularity of household television sets in the 1950s made immediate coverage of Emmett Till’s murder, funeral, and the resulting trial accessible to people across the world. Derrick Adams’s mid-century television depicts two Black characters from Star Trek: The Next Generation. The original Star Trek series was revolutionary for depicting one of the first on-screen interracial kisses between co-stars Nichelle Nichols and William Shatner. Nichols considered quitting Star Trek, but Martin Luther King Jr. convinced her to stay, emphasizing the show’s impact on racial equality and the importance of her character as a role model for Black children, especially girls.