DALLAS, Texas — The African American Museum in Dallas is the only one of its kind in the Southwest Region.
Their devotion to preserving and displaying over 200 African American historical materials began in 1974 and today the museum is a resource the community uses for events and research, that ranges from folk art to centuries-old masterpieces including African arts, Black Renaissance paintings and contemporary arts.
Traveling miles to Grand Avenue. Waco'sRapoport Academy visited the African American museum to learn about the history many are not aware of.
"A lot of people don’t know about it like he said earlier. When you see the cowboy movies you see the white people, you don’t see the Mexicans, or the African Americans and I think that it is important [for] people to start learning about that and become more inclusive, especially in America," says students Gracie Acosta.
The museum's mission is to not only preserve and obtain historical artifacts, but they continue to host various community events to bring everyone together.
"Carter G. Woodson who is the father of African American History says, that in reality there is no such thing as what he called negro history, negro history is the missing part of American History so what we’re doing is just filling in those missing parts of American history," says Curator of Education, Robert Edison.
To share with the younger generation how far we've come and how far we still have to go.
Edison adds, "there is an added burden on African American Museums today because we have 11 states that have passed laws that limit and make it unlawful to teach certain aspects of African American History because they say it make people uncomfortable. But from a historian perspective that is what history is supposed to do, make people uncomfortable. Because if we do not learn from the past, we tend to repeat that same mistakes that we’ve made.”
For more information on how the African American Museum in Dallas. You can visit their website here.