...The SoHo store windows, however, were dominated by one particular charm — the one that looked like a red-mouthed monkey. That image has a particular, painful resonance in this country. And it stopped Chinyere Ezie in her tracks. Ezie, a staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights, was returning from a trip to Washington; she’d visited the National Museum of African American History and Culture and been deeply moved by the experience. “It’s a heavy space. Our history in this country is heavy,” says Ezie, who is black. “It was a very emotional day. I kind of joked that I’d never wept in public before.” ...

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