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Black history is vital to understanding racial injustice. But the museums holding that history are under threat.

Category: Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, and Inclusion
The Colored Girl's Museum in Philadelphia is a house museum that founder Vashti DuBois likens to a public health facility. The 2016 exhibit "A Good Night's Sleep," above, tasked artists with finding an elixir for 400 years of sleeplessness. (Zamani Feelings/The Colored Girls Museum)
The Colored Girl's Museum in Philadelphia is a house museum that founder Vashti DuBois likens to a public health facility. The 2016 exhibit "A Good Night's Sleep," above, tasked artists with finding an elixir for 400 years of sleeplessness. (Zamani Feelings/The Colored Girls Museum)

“This is the principle underlying hundreds of Black history museums nationwide — that seeing yourself represented and understanding your history is a fundamental right.”

Many African American history museums remain chronically underfunded. And today, those museums — like their communities — are uniquely vulnerable to the effects of the coronavirus. But their struggle also has created institutions with grit. They are museums for which, too often, trauma is the subject matter and crisis is the normal operating state. They are museums with leaders who have long been first responders as much as they’ve been collectors.

Continue Reading at Washington Post

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