Exploding the Traditional Museum Model: The Black Museum Movement

Back in September, I attended the American Association for State and Local History’s first ever all-virtual conference. By and large, the ongoing pandemic and greater reckoning with our nation’s systemic racism dominated the topics of conversation. Museum and history professionals came together to discuss how to play a leading role in the important work that needs to be done while working with limited resources. One panelist’s comment stuck out to me (and I heavily paraphrase): “Take a look at what African American history museums are doing. They, by necessity, have become experts at doing more with less.”

So, I was thrilled to dive into Andrea Burns’s book chronicling the origins, growth, and development of the Black museum movement, From Storefront to Monument: Tracing the Public History of the Black Museum Movement. Throughout the book, Burns demonstrates how Black museums across America have fundamentally altered how African American history is presented in museums by shattering harmful stereotypes and refocusing the narrative on the realities of Black history and culture as well as the issues facing their contemporary communities.

In the process, and in spite of the challenges posed by limited finances, less than ideal space, and white backlash, Black museums turned the museum world on its head by thinking outside of the box and creating innovative programs. In Burns’ words, they “exploded tradition-bound conceptions of what a ‘museum’ can be and the audiences a museum may serve” (159). For example, the International Afro-American Museum of Detroit (now known as the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History) took their content outside of their four walls and into their community with their mobile exhibit van. These kinds of ideas may seem commonplace now, but in the middle of the 20^th century, they were truly revolutionary.

Throughout, Burns argues that the Black museum movement would not have been possible without the ideology of the Black Power movement, particularly the belief in self-sufficiency and Black professionals’ ability to create an institution that was by them, for them. Naturally, Black museums also exhibited a level of pride in their identity as Black that fell in line with the Black Power movement as well. However, the two movements had one major verging point: Black museums recognized that they would not be able to fully buy into Black separatism. They knew that they would have to court white approval and collaboration to secure the funding and political goodwill that would allow them to operate well into the future.

After reading this book, I agree with the statement made by the presenter at this year’s AASLH conference (whose name I unfortunately cannot remember.) Black museums often serve as a model for successful community engagement and overall innovation in the museum field.