Let Your Motto Be Resistance: African American Portraits - Softcover

This stunning collection of photographic portraits traces US history through the lives of well-known abolitionists, artists, scientists, writers, statesman, entertainers, and sports figures. Drawing on the photographic collections of the National Portrait Gallery, author Deborah Willis explores how these images—many by famous photographers—reveal the nation's history through an African American lens and challenge us all to uphold America's highest ideals and promises. Let Your Motto Be Resistance is the inaugural publication of the Smithsonian's new National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Deborah Willis is Professor of Photography and Imaging at the Tisch School of the Arts, New York University. She is a fine art photographer, curator, and author of many books on African American photography. Her recent publications include Family, History, and Memory: Recording African American Life (2005) and A Small Nation of People: W.E.B. Du Bois and the Photographs from the Paris Exposition (2003). A 2005 Guggenheim Fellow and Fletcher Fellow, Willis is also a 2000 MacArthur Fellow and member of the Scholarly Advisory Committee of the National Museum of African American History and Culture.