America's Black Holocaust Museum

America's Black Holocaust Museum building 1988-2008. It is now a virtual museum

America's Black Holocaust Museum (ABHM), located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was a memorial dedicated to the victims of the Black Holocaust. It was founded in 1988 by James Cameron, the United States' only known survivor of a lynching.[1]

New America's Black Holocaust Museum, 401 W. North Ave. MKE
The new ABHM, which is scheduled to open fall 2018, is located on the ground floor of the newly built Griot building at 401 W. North Ave., Milwaukee.

Cameron died in 2006; in 2008, the museum's board of directors announced that the museum would be closed temporarily because of financial problems.[2][3] The 501c3 nonprofit Dr. James Cameron Legacy Foundation was created in 2012 to continue the legacy and vision of Dr. Cameron. In 2012, the Foundation re-opened ABHM as a virtual museum. In 2016, the Foundation began planning to return the museum to a new home. The new museum, located on the ground floor of the Griot building at 401 W. North Avenue in Milwaukee's historic Bronzeville neighborhood, is scheduled to open in fall 2018.

History

James Cameron

After surviving a lynching attempt and imprisonment, starting at the age of 16, James Cameron became determined to change his life. He got an education, worked hard, and studied all his life about slavery and the African-American experience in the United States. He worked in civil rights, wrote independent articles, and collected materials having to do with African-American history.[4]

After retirement, Cameron and his wife visited Yad Vashem, the Holocaust museum in Israel. He thought that the focus on the personal history of individuals and their stories, rather than on numbers and processes, led to a better understanding of the reality of the Holocaust. Then living in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1988 he founded the museum, with the help of philanthropist Daniel Bader, having been collecting materials on the African-American experience in the US for many years.

Physical museum

ABHM's facility, located in Milwaukee, was the only memorial dedicated specifically to the victims of the enslavement of Africans in the United States.

Cameron died in 2006; in 2008, the museum's board of directors announced that the museum would be closed temporarily because of financial problems.[2][3] The original museum was tore down in early 2017. The site, including the former Garfield Avenue School, was redeveloped as the Historic Garfield School Redevelopment Program.

On April 4, 2017, the developers broke ground on a new building called The Griot on the footprint of the original museum.[5] The new museum is located on the ground floor of the Griot and is scheduled to open in fall 2018.[6]

Virtual museum

A new ABHM was established as a "virtual museum" by ABHM's Board of Directors, after the bricks-and-mortar museum had been closed since 2008. The new format came online as a virtual museum on February 25, 2012, in celebration of Cameron's birthday and Black History Month.[7]

The online museum is now operated by the nonprofit Dr. James Cameron Legacy Foundation Inc. Since 2017, it has attracted 5 million visitors from over 200 countries.

Mission

America's Black Holocaust Museum (ABHM) exists to educate the public of injustices suffered by people of African-American heritage, while providing visitors with an opportunity to rethink their assumptions about race and racism.

Educational focus

While there is also a Black Holocaust memorial in Savannah, Georgia, the ABHM facility served as a center for education and scholarship related to the Black Holocaust and as a non-threatening forum for sharing thoughts about race and racism in America.

Exposing visitors to historical aspects of African-American cultural identity was achieved through educational exhibits, special programming, and guided tours related to six distinct historic eras, which are replicated in the Virtual Museum:

ABHM welcomed visitors of all races and backgrounds, and encouraged community understanding of the nation's history of racism, prejudice, social change and cross-cultural understanding.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Lamb, Yvonne Shinhoster (June 13, 2006). "James Cameron; Survived Lynching, Founded Museum". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved February 28, 2018.
  2. 1 2 "America's Black Holocaust Museum's building closed after 20 years in Milwaukee". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Retrieved October 26, 2017.
  3. 1 2 "10 - BizTimes Media Milwaukee - Part 15". Biztimes.com. June 27, 2016. Retrieved October 26, 2017.
  4. ↑ "America's Black Holocaust Museum - Dr. James Cameron, Museum Founder and Lynching Survivor". Abhmuseum.org. Retrieved October 26, 2017.
  5. ↑ "America's Black Holocaust Museum - Help Bring ABHM Home! Museum's New Space Rises in Bronzeville". Abhmuseum.org. Retrieved October 26, 2017.
  6. ↑ "America's Black Holocaust Museum provides sneak peek during Doors Open Milwaukee | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service". milwaukeenns.org. Retrieved 2018-10-01.
  7. ↑ "America's Black Holocaust Museum reopens at online site". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Retrieved October 26, 2017.
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