[2] On July 4, 1940, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, from his Hyde Park home, pressed a button to turn on the lights, officially opening the American Negro Exposition.

[2] The art exhibit, which was curated by Alonzo J. Aden,[5] comprised 300 paintings and drawings and was called by The New York Times as "the largest showing of the work of Negro artists ever assembled.

"[4] The exposition is dominated by a replica of the Lincoln Tomb and Monument in Springfield, Ill. Exhibits include representation from most of the Federal departments and agencies, the city, the Board of Education and the Republic of Liberia.

[6][7][8] Black Mexican artist Elizabeth Catlett's master thesis, the limestone sculpture "Negro Mother and Child" won first place in the exposition.

Who are you America but Me?Arna Bontemps and Langston Hughes co-wrote a musical titled Jubilee: Cavalcade of the Negro Theater specifically for the exposition.

[10] Bontemps, the poet Fenton Johnson, and several others working under the auspices of the Illinois Writers' Project, produced a commemorative 96-page African-American history book called Cavalcade of the American Negro.

[16] CBS Sunday Morning correspondent Rita Braver did a story on the dioramas, with the intention of bringing awareness and hope that the segment would help in unearthing the lost 13.