Conservative leaders banned books. Now Black museums are bracing for big crowds.
Marvin Dulaney can’t always field enough staff on Saturdays to serve the growing crowds visiting the African American Museum of Dallas.
The number of visitors has nearly doubled in recent years and Dulaney expects it will continue to climb as more states look to adopt restrictive standards for teaching Black history and to limit access to certain books.
“When you say to people, ‘You can’t read these books or you can’t read this information.’ What are they going to do?’’ said Dulaney, the museum’s deputy director. “They're going to defy you and read those books and also go learn that information that you don't want them to know.’’
Dulaney and others who head museums that focus on the Black experience in the United States expect more people will turn to their institutions to learn more in the wake of efforts to restrict Black history teachings in public schools. Some say they are already seeing more visitors, while others point to anecdotal evidence that interest is on the rise.
“Across the country, we're seeing this wave of people whose blinders have been on or their history lessons have been kind of watered down for them and they want the true story so they want to come into our museums,’’ said Vedet Coleman-Robinson, executive director of the Association of African American Museums.
Black museums across the country – large and small – have provided a space for people to learn about Black history. That mission is even more important now, historians said.
“All this talk about history is making folks more curious about history,’’ said Tonya Matthews, president and chief executive officer of the new International African American Museum in Charleston, South Carolina.
Black history gets renewed interest
At the African American Museum in Dallas, the 100-seat auditorium is often packed for Thursday night panels. In the past, only 25 visitors would be in the space.
Dulaney said initial eagerness to get out after COVID-19 was the driving force behind the jump, but he believes renewed interest in Black history has been a major factor in surging attendance. None of the other museums in the city focus on the Black experience, he said.
“We always bragged that we're not only the best game, but the only game in town in terms of being able to learn about Black history,’’ said Dulaney, also president of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, which held a panel on teaching Black history at its conference in Florida this summer.
Dulaney also attributes the increase in visitors to efforts to push back against a campaign by mostly conservative lawmakers to restrict teachings of Black history in public schools in some states, including Alabama, Florida and Texas. He said movements to ban some books mostly by Black authors have also spurred interest.
In response to growing interest, the museum plans to restart a community African American history course this month.
Educators are looking to supplement history lessons and find ways for students to access more history, including through museums, said Neil A. Barclay, president and CEO of the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit.
“We believe that there's an interest in not only learning about African American history, but also finding creative and innovative ways to teach that history to young people,’’ Barclay said.
Debate over Back history not new
Historians said there has always been a debate over how much of the history of Blacks in America should be taught. That fight in part helped spur the push for more Black museums, they said.
“More folks are aware of the debate that has always been raging,’’ said Matthews of the International African American Museum.
Interest in Black museums has been growing for years so it’s not surprising that more people turn to them as the battle over Black history continues, experts said. The National Museum for African American History and Culture opened in Washington, D.C., in 2016 with much fanfare.
“That interest will always be there, regardless of whatever pushbacks there are,’’ said Lonnie Bunch, founding director of the NMAAHC and now Secretary of the Smithsonian. “You want to make sure that those museums are strong so when the pendulum swings and more and more people are coming to the subject they have good museums to explore.’’
Plans for the International African American Museum had been in the works for years. The museum, which opened in June and has had 50,000 visitors, is in Charleston, once one of the busiest slave ports in the country.
Matthews called the museum and others “free choice learning institutions.’’
Part of the challenge, she said, is to sustain interest without another tragedy fueling support.
The museum broke ground in 2019, four years after a white gunman killed nine Black churchgoers at Mother Emanuel Church in Charleston. Construction of the museum was underway during the 2020 protests over the murder of George Floyd in Minnesota. Those tragedies sparked interest in people wanting to learn more about the history of Blacks in America, Matthews said. It also increased support for the museum.
It took a “tragedy to get us over the finish line,’’ she said. “No one wishes that on anyone.’’
Black museums often experience a spike in visitation when there’s civil unrest or a social justice movement, said Coleman-Robinson. She likened the restrictions on teaching Black history and book bans to social injustice.
“People come to our museums because our museums are sanctuaries,’’ Coleman-Robinson said, adding that some also serve as learning centers. “We also see a spike because people are like, ‘OK, well, we got to know where we came from in order to know where we're going.’ ”
Learning about the stories that changed the US
Michael Morris, director of the Museum of Mississippi History and the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum, said he took notice one recent Saturday when he saw a group of about 20 Black boys visiting from New Orleans. It didn’t appear to be a traditional school field trip. It was a weekend. The group spent hours exploring the museum.
“They wanted to make sure that they got the real history,’’ said Morris.
Morris said he doesn’t know if there’s more interest in visiting the museum, which is still recovering after closing four months during the COVID pandemic. But he said there’s been interest in the mission of the museum, which features exhibits about the brutality of Jim Crow and slavery and the fight by civil rights activists for equality for Black citizens. More than 600,000 people have visited the museum since it opened six years ago.
Morris said he doesn’t feel pressure to not tell the “unvarnished truth.”
With the loss of civil rights legends such as Bob Moses in 2021 and Hollis Watkins, a Mississippi native, last month, Morris said preserving Black history is more important than ever.
“This museum was built with the exact purpose of making sure that their stores continue to be told,’’ he said. “It’s so important that we get many school students in here and learning about these stories, learning about these ordinary people that changed the nation, that changed Mississippi.’’
Museums not alone in telling Black history
Some other groups that focus on sharing Black history have also seen interest grow.
On one recent Saturday, the Gullah Heritage Trail Tours bus wheeled its way around Hilton Head stopping at sites where visitors could learn more about the island’s Gullah Geechee community. The community is home to descendants of enslaved Africans who because of their isolation on the island was able to hold onto some African customs and create a unique and rich culture.
In the past five years more Black customers have joined the tours, said Irvin Campbell, one of the founding partners of the 27-year-old company. Unlike in the past, most customers in recent months have been Black.
“I don’t know if we’re getting more interested in our culture or what,’’ Campbell said. “The push is on (promoting) Black culture in this area.’’
In 2006, Congress designated the region as the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor, which aims to preserve the culture along coastal Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina.
Campbell said he’s expecting more Black customers and plans to train more guides and drivers.
“It would do wonders for our community … to know more about who we are and what we’re about,” he said.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Black history museums see more visitors as lawmakers ban books
