These boxing robe and trunks, designed by Aggie Gerard Rodgers and created by Eric Winterling Inc, were worn by Denzel Washington in his Academy Award nominated role portraying boxer and civil rights activist Rubin "Hurricane" Carter in the 1999 biopic The Hurricane. In 2002 Washington won the Best Actor Oscar for Training Day, becoming the second African American to receive the award first won by Sidney Poitier in 1964.
The Taking the Stage exhibit, part of the Culture Galleries on the fourth floor of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, tells the story of how African Americans have acted to shape and transform the ways they are represented onstage by challenging racial discrimination and stereotypes and producing more diverse images of African American identity and experience.
The National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC), administered by the Smithsonian Institute, was established in December 2003 and opened its permanent home in September 2016. The 350,000-square-foot, 10-story (five above and five below ground) was built to the postmodern design of Phil Freelon's Freelon Group, Sir David Adjaye's Adjaye Associates and Davis Brody Bond. The above ground floors feature an inverted step pyramid surrounded by a bronze architectural scrim, which reflects a crown used in Yoruba culture. With more than 40,000 objects in its collection, although only about 3,500 items are on display, the NMAAHC is the world's largest museum dedicated to African-American history and culture.
The Smithsonian Institution, an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its shops and its magazines, was established in 1846. Although concentrated in Washington DC, its collection of over 136 million items is spread through 19 museums, a zoo, and nine research centers from New York to Panama.
