The Colored Museum was written in 1985 during the post-Vietnam War era. The beginning takes place on an airplane which is traveling through time. The airplane visits different museum exhibits, each of which displays African-American culture and history from the time they were brought to America as slaves all the way through nearly-recent times. Its eleven "exhibits" undermine black stereotypes old and new and return to the facts of what being black means. Each exhibit comments on the lifestyles, family, politics and the internal struggle of Black people in 20th century America.