Harlem on My Mind protest

The exhibition, focused on the Harlem Renaissance and intended as the museum's first show exploring the cultural achievements and contributions of African Americans, was heavily criticized by black audiences for not actually including any art by black artists, instead presenting documentary photographs and murals of the Harlem neighborhood, and for the exhibition's inclusion of several racist and anti-Semitic statements.

[1] When The Met mounted its special exhibition “Harlem on My Mind”: The Cultural Capital of Black America, 1900–1968, in 1969, the Museum was preparing for its one hundredth anniversary.

The accompanying catalog included a term paper written by Harlem resident and recent graduate of Theodore Roosevelt High School (New York City) Candice Van Ellison containing copious anti-semitic and anti-Irish slurs, and was subsequently pulled from publication by Hoving.

One of the central complaints was the exclusion of work by Black artists, such as Romare Bearden, Faith Ringgold, and Jacob Lawrence—all of whom were living in Harlem at the time.

[6] The BECC was organized in January 1969 by a group of 75 African American artists in direct response to the Metropolitan Museum of Art's "Harlem on My Mind" exhibit.

State Commissioner of Human Rights Robert Magnum asked that the show be closed "until it reflects a more accurate record of the aspirations, achievements and goals of the black people of New York.