Driving Into History
Step into a youth-powered journey where students bring history to life through bold photo recreations, powerful video storytelling, and the stories of Black women whose courage, challenges, and achievements helped pave the way — proving that every mile and every decade has a story.
Empowering Stories of Black Women and Their Cars
The Driving into History: Black Women, Cars, and Courage exhibition showcases the remarkable contributions of Black women in the 20 century whose courage inspires future generations to move, while highlighting the role of cars played in the freedoms and challenges they endured. While the exhibition highlights key people and aspects of U.S. history, it also shines a light on the joy and challenges that cars provided for girls and women.
Created by the Merze Tate Explorers, a Kalamazoo, Michigan-based youth media organization, the multimedia exhibition features nearly three dozen historic and reimagined photographs that explore Black women’s history through the lens of cars, travel, courage, mobility, and freedom.
Inspired by images from Picturing Freedom: African Americans and Their Cars, the exhibition, produced at the Gilmore Car Museum features images of students recreating historic photographs of Black women and girls with automobiles spanning the 20th century. The true community collaboration included professional photographers led by Dare’l McMillian, cosmetologists led by Cataanda James, designers, volunteers, and period wardrobe provided by the Kalamazoo Civic Theatre.
The exhibition also includes historic panels created in partnership with the Kalamazoo Valley Museum, along with student-produced video reports that explore how Black women shaped—and were shaped by—different decades of American history. These mini-docs are available for view on the Girls Can! Media YouTube Channel.
“They don’t talk about this stuff in school,” said LaNiya Taylor of Battle Creek, one of the student participants. “I learned so much about Black women I never heard of before we did so much research.”
The exhibition made its public debut during March is Women’s History Month at the Kalamazoo Black Arts and Cultural Center.
“This exhibition puts young people at the center of preserving history,” said Sonya Hollins, founder of the Merze Tate Explorers and curator of the exhibition. “Through photography, research, video, and storytelling, our students are helping audiences see Black women’s history, mobility, and courage in a powerful new way.”
