TOP BLACK MUSEUMS

by Thomas Dorsey, SoulOfAmerica.com

    When I published my first soulful city map in 1994, there were only a handful of significant museums focused on the Black Experience in America. You could finger museums in Chicago, Detroit, New York City, Baltimore, Memphis, Washington DC, Philadelphia and Los Angeles, but little else. Black Museums “Couldn’t Get No Love” from private philanthropists, corporate givers, government, or the public. Only countless labors of love sustained smaller ones who grew up to be bigger ones.

    Today, all Americans can cheer the formation and enhancement of dozens of magnificent museums who focus on the Black Experience nationwide. Some of these museums jar us out of the more comfortable perspective of the 21st century. Others engage us with art, culture and historical snapshots, artifacts and new media experiences. I pay special homage to Malcolm X, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr., Coretta Scott King, Paul Robeson, Mary McLeod Bethune, A. Phillip Randolph, Gordon Parks, Huey Newton, John Lewis, Barbara Jordan, Buck O’Neil, Jesse Jackson, John Biggers, Muhammad Ali and hundreds more in the 1960s, who formed the bridge from America’s Jim Crow Era to the rights African Americans enjoy some 40 years later. Their blood-stained contributions give deeper meaning and context to lynching exhibits seen in numerous Black Holocaust (slavery) exhibits. They inspire the canon of Afrocentric art nationwide. We better appreciate the fact that Black folks and some White folks laid everything on the line to secure civil rights in America that everyone enjoys today.

    Having visited over 50 Black Museums in America, I’m pleased to see more theme-specific museums. Although there’s always a place for multi-faceted, grand-scale museums, I favor the specialized theme approach for most newer museums because it creates compelling reasons to visit each museum on their own merit, rather than comparing more of the same. As a result, this specialization trend reveals a maturity and depth of perspectives about the Black Experience in America rather than who has the bigger budget. Why not? There’s enough blood stained history in every American city to shine the retrospective light of day on.

    Collectively, these museums reveal African Americans’ view of America, how other Americans viewed African Americans, and how America can become a better nation for all people. For that reason, travelers of all stripes should visit these museums for their grand scale, thematic significance or both.

    Although I personally don’t like to think of only 10 Top Black Museums, as Americans, it’s in our DNA to think of “Best Of” lists. With that caveat, I now reveal the major criteria for selecting who made the list:

Best Inclusion of a Major Historical Site
Best Historical Artifacts Collection
Best Art Collection
Best Architecture
Best Looking Interior Galleries
Best Museum Honoring a Person
Uniqueness of Artifacts or Concept

To make this list, a museum must be very good in at least two categories or best in one category. There were several close calls, so we also named 5 honorable mentions at the end of the list. Lastly, more Black Museums are coming in Washington DC, Pittsburgh, Charleston, and Central Virginia.

TOP BLACK MUSEUMS

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