Mrs. Cleveland and volunteers have been working to prepare the first exhibit for the Museum at the Urbana Champaign Independent Media Center
I would like to see this museum established here in our town of Urbana for the purpose of educating our people, especially our Black children: to teach them about our history and what Black people have contributed to this country, the harsh realities of slavery, and the barbaric treatment they faced just for having Negro faces. (The word “Negro” is part of our history, not something to hide from, and this museum is about facing our truth.)
The museum would have artifacts that have cultural and historical meaning. Painting, drawing, and other forms of art; stories from persons who are 65, 75, 80, or 100, depicting the Black struggles from “birth to death.” Stories about the Black slaves’ darkness, about their suffering, their despair—branded as three-fifths of a human. The Black slaves’ darkness casts a shadow over America up to today because of the ill-favored brutality that was used to dominate and control other human beings.
The museum would be a place to learn about the truth. To learn about the seeds of hate, racism, bigotry, and denial. Supremacy is a state of mind focusing on “Making America Great Again.” Was it ever great with all the dark shadows of the past?
Nothing was ever spoken about our ancestors. I was not taught about our ancestors. I was not taught about the suffering or the violent inhumane treatments. As a child in grade school, even high school, Black studies wasn’t a part of the school curriculum. There wasn’t a place a Black child could go and learn about themselves and their culture. We didn’t read about our Black past and how the Black man and woman were important to America. That Black people built this country with “free labor,” blood, sweat, tears, and pain. With heartaches from the chains placed upon the bodies of the slaves. We were not told about our rich heritage, our traditions, our customs, or our history. Knowledge from books, but only from the old ones and the stories they told, gave us a glimpse of the forbidden future. Our ancestors left us with the truth, but it was misplaced and hidden. Even our artifacts were destroyed to hide our Black presence.
The museum would be a place to learn about the unknown. About all races, not just Black, Indigenous, and other people of color, but all races who come together as the human race. That each one of us is more important than the color of our skin tone.
The museum would be a place to teach our children the value that our ancestors left us. That Black men, women, and children are worthy of their blackness and must honor themselves and those that came before. We must teach our children that they didn’t come from trash, but from great kings, queens, and warriors.
We must teach our children about the dark past; they need to know the history of Black people. We must teach them that the slave ancestors didn’t bleed and die for them to shoot down their own brothers in the street.
I believe the museum would be a great place to meet each other, to learn, to face one another with truths without condemnatory words about the past, and to be willing to stand in each other’s shoes. To realize that Blacks could not live in two worlds for a long time. Even now it is hard. Because it’s a white’s world, and we must face the fact of who has the most privileges.
Before we can come together and sit down together with an open heart, a thinking mind and a true soul we must have a real conversation about what we dare not talk about in the past.
Would this Negro/Black Cultural, History, and Art Museum be the answer? I don’t know, but it could bring more understanding. We as people are connected because we all have the last name of “humanity.” I believe the museum could be the table of change. We must first create a dialogue with each other and thus bring a calmness to our young people. And then, to every one of us.
The Negro/Black Cultural, History and Art Museum will opened at the IMC December 5, 2024 with a display curated by Mrs. Cleveland. A prolific artist and poet, she has been organizing for several years to establish a museum in the community. She has been gathering letters of support and sharing her vision at community events, including Juneteenth at Douglass Park.
Mrs. Cleveland is an artist, writer, and playwright who is inspired by her admiration for the experience and endurance of African Americans through the centuries. She was born in Louisiana but has resided in Urbana for many years.
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