Each year, tens of thousands of visitors from around the world walk through the entrance of the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History and are immediately drawn to the Ring of Genealogy with its engraved gold-plated names and marble design on the floor of the Museum’s Ford Freedom Rotunda.  Soon visitors will also see the ...

A reporter writing a story on what history museums are doing to stay relevant in the current economic climate recently contacted me.  Our discussion spoke directly to the vibrancy of the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History as a preeminent historical institution, but also having a wide array of educational a ...

• April 8, 1872 Ruth Ada Gaines-Shelton, playwright, was born in Glasgow, Missouri. Shelton-Gaines graduated from Wilberforce University in 1895 and taught school until 1898. After marrying, Gaines wrote many plays, but her only known published work is “The Church Fight” which was published in the Crisis Magazine in May, 1926. This play is signi ...

MAY 2013: The Voices of the Civil War is a five-year film series dedicated to celebrating and commemorating the Civil War over the course of the sesquicentennial. Each month, new episodes cover pertinent topics that follow the monthly events and issues as they unfolded for African Americans during the C ...

• May 23, 1832 Samuel Sharpe, national hero of Jamaica, was hanged for leading the Christmas Rebellion. Sharpe was born enslaved in 1801 in St. James, Jamaica. Although enslaved, Sharpe was allowed to be educated and became a preacher and leader in the enslaved community. On December 25, 1831, he organized a peaceful strike of several estates in ...

• May 22, 1914 Sun Ra, hall of fame jazz pianist, composer, bandleader, and poet, was born Herman Poole Blount in Birmingham, Alabama. Sun Ra was a skilled pianist as a child and by the age of 12 was writing original music. As a teenager, he would see big band performances and produce full transcriptions of the music from memory. By his mid-teen ...

• May 21, 1879 John Jones, businessman and civil rights activist, died. Jones was born November 3, 1816 in Greene County, North Carolina. He was trained as a tailor and in 1845 moved to Chicago, Illinois and opened a tailoring shop. His business thrived and he invested in real estate. By 1860, Jones was one of the wealthiest African Americans in ...

• May 20, 1743 Francois-Dominique Toussaint L’Ouverture, Haitian patriot and revolutionary leader, was born enslaved in Saint-Domingue, Hispaniola (now Haiti). At an early age, Toussaint’s master recognized his superior intelligence and taught him French, gave him duties which allowed him to educate himself, and freed him at age 33. Beginning in ...

The Wright Museum wrapped up an incredibly busy first three months of 2013, celebrating Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Black History Month, and Women’s History Month (see our event pictures inside… perhaps you’re in one!). In addition to the plethora of historically important individuals and events included in these months, it’s significant to not ...

Inspiring Minds: it’s not just the name of our newest permanent exhibit.  It’s also an extraordinarily apt description of what the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History does, day in and day out, for people of all ages and backgrounds.  Exploring the African American experience through the arts, humanities, law, ...

The past two months of September and October, normally our slowest time of the year, have been quite remarkable thanks to the Visions of Our 44th President exhibition, which has attracted attention from near and far.  Fifteen of the participating artists, many of whom traveled from across the country at their own expense, attended ...

What an incredible summer we had this year at The Wright Museum! The opening night of the 20th Concert of Colors once again attracted a standing-room only crowd in the General Motors Theater. We honored the 90th birthday of one of Detroit’s own legal legends, Judge Damon J. Keith, and shined a spotlight on literacy at the Jerry Pinkney Celebrity ...