“Historically, African American history has not been widely taught in high schools or colleges, so it is no surprise to see a proliferation of museums devoted to Black history,” says Calvin Riley, the founder and curator of the George B. Vashon Heritage Museum of African American History in St. Louis. The Vashon museum is one of more than 100 museums nationwide dedicated to African American history.
Some are tiny, such as the one-room library and museum in Sedalia, Missouri, focused on preserving the history of African Americans in middle Missouri. The largest is the 400,000-square-foot National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington.
Many have a narrow focus. For example, the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City presents the history of the Negro National Leagues from 1920 through 1962.
The oldest is the Hampton University Museum established in 1868 in Hampton, Virginia, while the newest is the National Museum of African American Music in Nashville, Tennessee, which opened on Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 2021.
In their own manner, all are important historical depositories of African American culture. They preserve the history of the Black community, as well as celebrate African American accomplishments in the arts and society.
Here’s a sampling of African American history museums to get you started.
By Jim Winnerman | Special to the Post-Dispatch
Click the numbers on the map legend below to explore:
Seattle; currently only virtual; naamnw.org
Aptly located overlooking a park dedicated to Jimi Hendrix, one of Seattle’s most famous African American citizens, this museum presents the history, art and culture of the African American community in the often-underrepresented presentation of Black history in the Pacific Northwest.
The permanent collection includes exhibits of the original African American settlers in the area, and the community’s involvement in Seattle’s golden age of jazz in the 1920s.
The museum is housed in a stately, four-story, 1909 brick building that was once Seattle’s Colman School. The school was the first in Seattle attended by Black students, and the first to hire Black teachers. Scheduled for demolition in 1985, African American activists lobbied for its use as a museum. When no progress was forthcoming, they continued to occupy the school for eight years, making their action the longest act of civil disobedience in U.S. history to date.
Northwest African American Museum
Unless otherwise noted the museums listed here are open, but most require timed tickets due to the pandemic. Check the websites for the most up-to-date information.
Unless otherwise noted the museums listed here are open, but most require timed tickets due to the pandemic. Check the websites for the most up-to-date information.
Los Angeles; free; caamuseum.org
Art at this museum ranges from the 1800s to the present and encompasses art connected to African Americans in California and the western United States. The collection also includes recordings of interviews with African American celebrities from the early 1970s.
The museum’s publicly accessible research library contains more than 20,000 volumes.
California African American Museum
Unless otherwise noted the museums listed here are open, but most require timed tickets due to the pandemic. Check the websites for the most up-to-date information.
Chicago; $14.50; dusablemuseum.org
Founded in 1961 to celebrate Black culture, diverse holdings consist of more than 15,000 artifacts including paintings, sculptures, print works and historical memorabilia. Special exhibitions, workshops and lectures are featured to highlight individual achievements.
A recent exhibit featured the story of Kathryn Magnolia Johnson, an African American woman sent to France in World War I to report on the treatment of black soldiers during the conflict. Another exhibit explored how Harold Washington became the first elected African American mayor of Chicago in 1983 and chronicles his work as a public political figure.
The DuSable Museum
Unless otherwise noted the museums listed here are open, but most require timed tickets due to the pandemic. Check the websites for the most up-to-date information.
Chicago; $5; aprpullmanportermuseum.org
The museum is named after Asa Philip Randolph and the men who made up the membership of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters Union.
Randolph was the chief organizer and co-founder of the union, which was the first African American labor union in the country to be recognized by the American Federation of Labor. It was also the first group to win a collective bargaining agreement against a major corporation, the Pullman Palace Car Co.
While exhibits have a significant focus on the African American railroad employee, the collection includes exhibits pertinent to the study of the African American contribution to America’s labor history and the American Civil Rights Movement.
National A. Philip Randolph
Pullman Porter Museum
Unless otherwise noted the museums listed here are open, but most require timed tickets due to the pandemic. Check the websites for the most up-to-date information.
Kansas City; $10; nlbm.com
This museum chronologically charts the progress of the Negro National Leagues from 1920 through 1962. “We tell many compelling stories from African American bat boys to home run hitters,” says Raymond Doswell, museum vice president and curator.
In one area of the museum, there are display lockers for some of the legends of the Negro leagues with game-worn uniforms, cleats, gloves and other artifacts from stars such as Josh Gibson, who was known as the “Black Babe Ruth.” The Field of Legends at the end of the tour features 12 life-sized bronze statues of figures from Negro League history.
“The museum is a block away from a YMCA building where independent Black baseball team owners met in 1920 to establish the Negro National League,” Doswell says, adding that visitors number about 70,000 yearly.
Negro Leagues Baseball Museum
Unless otherwise noted the museums listed here are open, but most require timed tickets due to the pandemic. Check the websites for the most up-to-date information.
Sedalia, Missouri; free; osemnolenblackhistorylibrary.org
Founded in 2013 by retired white psychologist Marge Harlan, the purpose of this free-standing, one-room library is to preserve and maintain documents related to African American life in middle Missouri, both for research and education.
Harlan also erected a replica and controversial slave cabin next to the library. The cabin was the topic of a segment on CBS news in 2016.
Nolen was an activist and author, and for 10 years she was a columnist and writer for the Columbia Daily Tribun
Rose M. Nolen Black History Library
Unless otherwise noted the museums listed here are open, but most require timed tickets due to the pandemic. Check the websites for the most up-to-date information.
St. Louis; $10; georgevashonmuseum.org
This museum began when teacher and collector of African American antiquities Calvin Riley was cleaning out the basement of the George B. Vashon family home and discovered a trunk from the 1880s full of Vashon family memorabilia. Combining the discovered artifacts with his own collection of Black memorabilia he had begun accumulating 40 years earlier, Riley opened his museum.
Although primarily devoted to Black history in St. Louis, there are more than 4,000 items representing 250 years of regional African American history displayed in the museum. Included are several pieces of Vashon family correspondence concerning participation in the Underground Railroad. Other items include the likeness of the Rev. Thomas Paul printed on silk and dating to the early 1800s. Paul was the first pastor of the First African Baptist Church in Boston in 1806.
A soon to be opened gallery on the second floor will feature the life and career of St. Louis television personality Julius Hunter.
George B. Vashon Museum of African American History
Unless otherwise noted the museums listed here are open, but most require timed tickets due to the pandemic. Check the websites for the most up-to-date information.
St. Louis; $7.50; thegriotmuseum.com
The Griot opened in 1997, dedicated to presenting the broad scope of Black history with an emphasis on the metropolitan area. (A griot is a member of a class of traveling poets, musicians and storytellers in some west African countries who maintain a tradition of oral history.)
The core galleries include life-size wax figures, art, artifacts and memorabilia to help interpret the stories of Black people who have contributed to our area. Visitors can “meet” historical figures such as Josephine Baker, Dred and Harriet Scott, Clark Terry, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the Rev. Earl. E. Nance Sr., Miles Davis and Percy Green.
As part of a cultural partnership with the Harvard University Commonwealth Project, an exhibit in 2021 showcased the work of six photography-based artists living in north St. Louis.
The Griot also hosts national traveling arts and humanities exhibits and sponsors community education projects, gallery talks and cultural celebrations.
The Griot Museum of Black History
Unless otherwise noted the museums listed here are open, but most require timed tickets due to the pandemic. Check the websites for the most up-to-date information.
Memphis, Tennessee; $18; civilrightsmuseum.org
The mission of this museum is to share the culture and lessons from the American Civil Rights Movement.
It is located at the former Lorraine Motel where civil rights leader the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968. Through interactive exhibits, historic collections, dynamic speakers and special events, the museum offers visitors an opportunity to walk through history and learn about a tumultuous and inspiring period of change.
A permanent exhibit titled “Standing up by Sitting Down” features the original lunch counter where protestors staged the first sit-in, demonstrating against segregation. Three-dimensional figures sit at the counter while other figures represent angry hecklers standing at their side.
Another permanent exhibit titled “The Year They Walked” chronicles the aftermath following Rosa Parks’ refusal to surrender her seat to a white male passenger and move to the back of a Montgomery, Alabama, bus in 1955.
The exhibit includes a quote by Parks who later said: “The only tired I was, was the tired of giving in.”
National Civil Rights Museum
Unless otherwise noted the museums listed here are open, but most require timed tickets due to the pandemic. Check the websites for the most up-to-date information.
Wallace, Louisiana; $25; whitneyplantation.org
The newest attraction alongside the road between New Orleans and Baton Rouge known as “Plantation Alley” is not just another restored antebellum mansion that was the headquarters of a cotton plantation. The Whitney Plantation is a one-of-a-kind history museum focused entirely on slavery. Although majestic oaks do frame the front walk to the late-18th century French-Creole style “big house,” before guests can see the home furnished with period finery, a tour guide introduces visitors to the slaves who built the residence and toiled here cultivating sugar and rice during the 18th and 19th centuries. The website says the estate depicts ‘the life of a slave from cradle to the tomb.”
Excerpts from interviews conducted in the 1930s with people who remembered being enslaved are one of many exhibits.
The names of the 356 people once enslaved on the plantation are etched in granite slabs on the Wall of Honor on the grounds.ongest act of civil disobedience in U.S. history to date.
Whitney Plantation
Unless otherwise noted the museums listed here are open, but most require timed tickets due to the pandemic. Check the websites for the most up-to-date information.
Nashville, Tennessee; $25; nmaam.org
Planning for this museum commenced in 2002, and the 56,000-square-foot institution opened on Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 2021.
The museum details how the development of much of America’s music such as the blues, rock ‘n’ roll, country and jazz is intrinsically linked to Black culture and the enslaved Africans who brought with them strong musical traditions.
The museum is divided into seven distinct galleries with imaginative names such as “Rivers of Rhythm,” “Wade in the Water” and “One Nation Under a Groove.” On exhibit are more than 1,500 artifacts from American music and their relationship to Black culture.
Many of the displays are interactive, including those where visitors can create their own hip-hop beats and sing along to the tune of “Oh Happy Day” with a virtual gospel choir.
National Museum of African
American Music
Unless otherwise noted the museums listed here are open, but most require timed tickets due to the pandemic. Check the websites for the most up-to-date information.
Cincinnati, Ohio; $15; freedomcenter.org
The museum recognizes the significant role of Cincinnati in the history of the Underground Railroad, which existed during the early- to mid-19th century with the purpose of helping slaves escape to freedom by crossing the Ohio River from the Southern slave states.
The 158,000-square-foot, $110 million institution opened to the public on Aug. 3, 2004, with first lady Laura Bush, Oprah Winfrey and Muhammad Ali attending, along with 20,000 spectators.
As a “museum of conscience,” it challenges visitors to contemplate the meaning of freedom in their own lives.
The center’s principal artifact is an 1830, two-story log slave pen transported from its original Kentucky location. It is the only known surviving structure used to house slaves prior to their being shipped to auction while traders waited for favorable market conditions and higher selling prices. Male slaves were held on the second floor shackled to the iron rings that are still there, while women were kept on the first floor.
“The pen is powerful,” says Carl Westmoreland, curator and senior adviser to the museum. “It has the feeling of hallowed ground. When people stand inside, they speak in whispers. It is a sacred place.”
National Underground
Railroad Freedom Center
Unless otherwise noted the museums listed here are open, but most require timed tickets due to the pandemic. Check the websites for the most up-to-date information.
Detroit; $10; tuskegeemuseum.org
This museum, located in the Coleman A. Young Gallery at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, presents the contributions of Black Americans who served as pilots during World War II. At the time the American military was segregated. Some believed African American men lacked the skill, courage and patriotism needed to be a pilot.
The museum presents the accomplishments of 992 pilots who received their commissions as officers and their pilot wings at Tuskegee Army Airfield in Tuskegee, Alabama, between 1942 and 1946.
By the end of the war the cadre of pilots had thousands of combat missions and destroyed 251 enemy airplanes, and had been awarded 150 Distinguished Flying Crosses for their service.
Part of the museum’s mission is to encourage today’s youth to learn to fly. Programs throughout the year expose interested youth to the field of aviation and includes a ride in a small plane.
Tuskegee Airmen National
Historical Museum
Unless otherwise noted the museums listed here are open, but most require timed tickets due to the pandemic. Check the websites for the most up-to-date information.
Harlem, New York; studiomuseum.org
Since opening in a rented loft in 1968, this museum has earned recognition for its collections, research and interpretations of the work of American artists of African descent.
The permanent collection includes more than 1,600 paintings, sculptures, watercolors, drawings, pastels, prints, photographs, mixed-media works and installations. The museum is also the custodian of the work of photographer James VanDerZee, the quintessential chronicler of the Harlem community from 1906 to 1983.
The museum’s Artist-In-Residence program has nearly 100 graduates who have established highly regarded careers.
It’s currently closed as a new, five-story, 82,000-square-foot home for the museum is built.
The Studio Museum
Unless otherwise noted the museums listed here are open, but most require timed tickets due to the pandemic. Check the websites for the most up-to-date information.
Washington, D.C.; free; nmaahc.si.edu
The National Museum of African American History and Culture opened to the public in 2016. The 400,000-square-foot institution is the 19th and newest museum within the Smithsonian Institution family of museums and the only national museum devoted exclusively to the documentation of African American life, history and culture.
The museum has collected more than 36,000 artifacts covering the widest range of Black history. Exhibits range from a restored segregation-era rail car to Harriet Tubman’s hymnal and Michael Jackson’s fedora.
The institution’s “Searchable Museum” provides a rich digital experience that includes multimedia presentations of the museum’s collections and educational resources.
The unusual building shape was inspired by the Yoruban, which are three-tiered crowns used in West African art. The pattern cast into the 3,600 bronze-colored corona panels surrounding the exterior of the building allude to the ornate ironwork found in southern cities such as New Orleans, which was ironwork typically designed and fabricated by enslaved Americans.
National Museum of African American History and Culture
Unless otherwise noted the museums listed here are open, but most require timed tickets due to the pandemic. Check the websites for the most up-to-date information.
Hampton, Virginia; free; home.hamptonu.edu/msm/
Founded in 1868, this is the nation’s oldest African American museum. Galleries showcase African American, African, Native American, Asian and Pacific art and artifacts representing cultures and people from around the world.
The collections have always been intended to instill a pride of ethnic identity and knowledge of world cultures. The first objects were acquired from the Pacific Islands, and African pieces from various cultures continue to be collected and displayed.
Hampton University Museum
California African American Museum
The California African American Museum contains over 5,000 historical African American pieces of memorabilia dating from the 1800s to the present.
Jerry Lockett Photography
The “Field of Legends” at the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum features life-sized bronzed statues of key figures in Negro Leagues Baseball history including the batter, Martin Dihigo and catcher, Josh Gibson.
Calvin Riley
The George B. Vashon Museum in St. Louis displays 4,000 artifacts representing 250 years of regional African American history.
National Civil Rights Museum
The facade of the iconic Lorraine Motel is preserved as it was in the 1960s with the addition of a wreath in memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Whitney Museum
At the Whitney Plantation, sculptures of slave children are displayed as a memorial to the thousands of children who died while in slavery. They are in a Baptist church that was moved to the grounds of the plantation.
National Museum of African American Music
The National Museum of African American Music in Nashville opened on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Jan. 18, 2021.
National Underground Railroad Freedom Center
Alan Karchmer, National Museum of African American History and Culture