<\/p>\n
From left: Valerie Gay, Ashley Jordan, Lonnie Bunch, Dr. Jo-Elle Mogerman and Sierra Dunn attend the Association of African American Museums annual conference on Wednesday at the Philadelphia Zoo. \u2014TRIBUNE PHOTO\/KAYLA BROWN<\/p>\n
Against a backdrop of political pressure, futile attempts to erase Black history and a presidential administration targeting, diversity, equity and inclusion programs across the federal government, hundreds of cultural institutions gathered in Philadelphia Wednesday as the Association of African American Museums opened its 48th annual conference.<\/p>\n
With live music celebrating Black culture, those who spend much of their working lives protecting others\u2019 memories got a chance to dance, eat, laugh and enjoy one another. But nobody needed reminding why their work suddenly feels more urgent.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
From left: Alyssa Dituro, Sydnie Davis, Dr. Dina Bennett and Dr. Dexter Evans represent Nashville’s National Museum of African American Music at the opening ceremony on Wednesday at the Philadelphia Zoo. \u2014 TRIBUNE PHOTO\/KAYLA BROWN<\/p>\n
The five-day gathering, which opened Wednesday at the Philadelphia Zoo, is expected to bring more than 700 people to Philadelphia through Aug. 23 including museum workers, historians, preservationists and cultural leaders.<\/p>\n
What no one could ignore is how President Donald Trump\u2019s administration has pushed to change the way slavery, race and other difficult parts of the American story are presented by many of the cultural institutions.<\/p>\n
Trump has complained that museums focus too much on the country\u2019s failures and portray America as inherently racist or oppressive.<\/p>\n
For people whose careers are devoted to preserving the Black experience, this is not simply another Washington political fight. It is a fight over memory. And standing among them Wednesday night was a man who knows that fight perhaps better than anyone.<\/p>\n
Lonnie G. Bunch III, the 14th secretary of the Smithsonian and founding director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, was on hand to take in the festivities while the institution he leads remains squarely in the administration\u2019s crosshairs.<\/p>\n
Bunch, a historian who generally chooses his public words carefully, was asked how he was holding up under pressure, and offered an answer strikingly different from the measured public language normally associated with the nation\u2019s top museum official.<\/p>\n
\u201cForget them cr—ers,\u201d Bunch told The Tribune.<\/p>\n
When offered not to print his words, Bunch refused to walk them back.<\/p>\n
\u201cPrint them,\u201d he said. \u201cGo ahead, please.\u201d<\/p>\n
The exchange lasted only a few seconds.<\/p>\n
But on a night devoted to people charged with safeguarding Black America\u2019s history, the words hung in the air.<\/p>\n
Around Bunch, no one seemed ready to pack up an archive, empty an exhibit case or surrender the story.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe also know that we\u2019ve been here before,\u201d said Ashley Jordan, president and CEO of the African American Museum in Philadelphia. \u201cAnd it\u2019s important that we maintain the story. The reason why we\u2019re gatekeepers is so that history won\u2019t repeat itself.\u201d<\/p>\n
The current climate emanating from Washington, D.C., has made staying connected even more important for those doing that work, Parker said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe mandate for us to continue this work is necessary now more than ever,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd I think this time really calls on us to really come forward. And that\u2019s what we\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cStill Making America Whole\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Members of the African American Museum in Philadelphia join the roll call of museums at the opening ceremony on Wednesday at the Philadelphia Zoo. \u2014TRIBUNE PHOTO\/KAYLA<\/p>\n
Philadelphia is a particularly fitting place for that declaration.<\/p>\n
The country is marking its 250th anniversary in the city where the Declaration of Independence was adopted. This year also marks the centennial of historian Carter G. Woodson\u2019s launch of Negro History Week, which later became Black History Month. The African American Museum in Philadelphia, founded during the nation\u2019s bicentennial in 1976, is celebrating its 50th anniversary.<\/p>\n
The conference itself refuses to separate those histories. Its theme is \u201cThis Land Holds Our Stories: Celebrating America 250 and 100 Years of Negro History Week; We\u2019re Still Making America Whole.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sylvia Cyrus, executive director of the Washington-based Association for the Study of African American Life and History, said the fight over Black history extends far beyond museums. \u201cThis history belongs to each of our families,\u201d Cyrus said.<\/p>\n
She sees evidence that the political pressure may be waking people up rather than driving them off. \u201cOur people are showing up,\u201d Cyrus said. \u201cAnd when you realize that this attack is against you personally, I think that it is helping to wake the majority of us up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jillian Patricia Pirtle, CEO of Philadelphia\u2019s Marian Anderson Museum and Historical Society, described the gathering as a \u201ccommunion\u201d among historic African American spaces and people united in preservation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are all universally on a mission here this week to make sure that the living legacy of African American history will be kept and it will move forward in a special way,\u201d Pirtle said.<\/p>\n
The goal is to ensure the history is \u201cnot erased, not forgotten,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
That mission spans from Philadelphia to Texas, where institutions are finding their own ways to protect and expand the Black historical record.<\/p>\n
The full story<\/p>\n
Jarred Howard, CEO of the National Juneteenth Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, said his institution\u2019s mission remains clear: tell the story accurately. \u201cAmerica doesn\u2019t know the story,\u201d Howard said.<\/p>\n
One misconception, he said, is that enslaved people in Texas first learned of emancipation on June 19, 1865. The museum is assembling researchers committed to telling the fuller story. \u201cNobody can impair our ability to find out about the story.\u201d<\/p>\n
Howard also rejects the notion that Juneteenth belongs exclusively to one race or political party. \u201cThey tell us that the bedrock of America is freedom,\u201d he said. \u201cJuneteenth is all about freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not white, Black, left, right, D, R,\u201d he added. \u201cIt\u2019s a story that resonates with everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not a side chapter<\/p>\n
That argument was evident throughout Wednesday\u2019s celebration. The museums represented at the zoo varied in size, geography and subject matter, but their representatives shared the belief that Black history is not a side chapter in the American story.<\/p>\n
Val Gay, Philadelphia\u2019s chief cultural officer and executive director of Creative Philadelphia, welcomed the visitors on behalf of Mayor Cherelle L. Parker and highlighted the convergence of America\u2019s 250th anniversary, the centennial of Negro History Week, and AAMP\u2019s 50th anniversary.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Erika Williams, left, and Vera Warren Williams traveled from New Orleans to attend the Association of African American Museums annual conference in Philadelphia on Wednesday. \u2014TRIBUNE PHOTO\/KAYLA BROWN<\/p>\n
\u201cGatherings like this remind us of why we do this work, how much it means to others, and perhaps most importantly, that none of us is doing this work alone,\u201d Gay said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are a community. We are part of a network that is bigger than any one museum or institution.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even the venue carried its own bit of history.<\/p>\n
Jo-Elle Mogerman, president and CEO of the Philadelphia Zoo, reminded visitors that the institution was chartered in 1859 and opened after the Civil War. She also noted that she is one of only four African American presidents and CEOs of accredited zoos nationwide.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am honored to be talking with my people today,\u201d Mogerman told the crowd.<\/p>\n
Powerful reminder<\/p>\n
One of the night\u2019s most powerful reminders of what preserving history can mean came from nearly 1,800 miles away.<\/p>\n
Deborah\u00a0Omowale-Jarmon, CEO and executive director of the San Antonio African American Community Archive and Museum, told the crowd about her organization\u2019s effort to transform historic department-store buildings into a 103,000-square-foot cultural center.<\/p>\n
One of those stores, she recalled, was a place where Black customers could spend their money but not try on the clothes. It had a cafeteria, but Black customers could not sit down to eat.<\/p>\n
Now, a Black museum is taking possession of that space and changing what it represents.<\/p>\n
\u201cA place that once told us where we could not sit is going to become a place where our stories stand,\u201d Omowale-Jarmon said.<\/p>\n
Her story captured what much of the evening. Despite the political pressure, nobody seemed particularly interested in holding a funeral for Black history on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Peggy Montes, center, attends the opening ceremony with her daughter Pia Montes and granddaughter Bria Griffith. They are representing the Bronzeville Children’s Museum in Chicago. \u2014TRIBUNE PHOTO\/KAYLA BROWN<\/p>\n
They were too busy celebrating.<\/p>\n
Music moved through the zoo. Museum delegations cheered each other. People ate and drank, exchanged ideas and business cards, embraced friends and danced.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the family reunion of all family reunions,\u201d said Dexter Evans, Deputy Director of Strategy & Advancement at the National Museum of African American Music in Nashville. \u201cThis is the cookout. It\u2019s the family reunion. It\u2019s the homecoming of Black museums.\u201d<\/p>\n