African American Museum
3536 Grand Ave.
Fair Park, Dallas
214/565-9026
aamdallas.org
Hours: 11am–5pm Tue–Fri; 10am–5pm Sat.
Admission: Free; $5 admission for special exhibits and some events.
Parking: $10; except for the State Fair of Texas or other special events.
As February is Black History Month, your children’s school days are likely filled with lessons on the achievements of prominent African-Americans such as Harriet Tubman, the Tuskegee Airmen, Martin Luther King Jr. and Condoleezza Rice. While studying the profound themes of slavery and the Civil Rights Movement, your kids may bring home some thoughtful questions for you.
So to feed their curiosity about the significant role of black history in American history, take them for a visit to the African American Museum in Dallas. The museum – founded in 1974 and opened at Fair Park in 1993 – has one of the largest collections of African-American folk art in the United States, as well as African-American fine art, African art, historical magazines and community archives. Even the architecture and design motifs of the building reflect African traditions.
Now is an especially good time to go because the museum has an exhibit called Rising Up, which features six murals that portray select events through the time of slavery, emancipation and freedom, on view through February 28. African-American artist Hale Woodruff painted the murals – two of which are 20 feet wide – in 1939 and 1940 to commemorate the centennial of the 1839 revolt of African slaves onboard the Spanish ship La Amistad and the later founding of Talladega College, Alabama’s oldest historically black college. “It’s important for families to teach their children the whole history, and the true picture is this – there were atrocities. There were bad times. We’ve tried to overcome that,” says Harry Robinson, Ph.D., museum president and CEO.
The kids are too young to remember, but you may have seen Steven Spielberg’s 1997 film Amistad, starring Anthony Hopkins as former president John Quincy Adams, who joined white abolitionists in arguing to the U.S. Supreme Court for the slaves’ freedom (and won).
The African American Museum is the exhibit’s first stop since the murals were removed from the Talladega College library, restored and sent out on exhibition. So this is your last opportunity to see the exhibit, on view since October, before it travels around the country for the next few years.
On your way into the museum, pick up an activity book at the front desk for the kids to fill out. A scavenger hunt will encourage them to find items in the paintings, identify historical figures and respond to questions such as “What does freedom look like to you?” After a visit to the museum, the kids will have a better understanding of the answer.
