The Old Line State鈥檚 official museum of African American heritage and culture got a new name this year. The Banneker-Douglass-Tubman Museum in historic Annapolis memorializes a trio of antislavery trailblazers鈥攏ative Marylanders, all.
The museum, which explores African American history in the state from 1633 to the present, inspires its 15,000 annual visitors 鈥渢o learn how they too can be agents of change in their own communities,鈥 says executive director Chanel Johnson.
Nestled just blocks away from the Maryland State House, the museum is housed in the former Mount Moriah African Methodist Episcopal Church, constructed in 1874 by a congregation of free African Americans whose roots in the area stretch back to the eighteenth century.
Opened in 1984, it was named the Banneker-Douglass Museum in honor of mathematician, astronomer, and antislavery activist Benjamin Banneker and abolitionist and statesman Frederick Douglass. Its new name now recognizes Harriet Tubman, an abolitionist who made 13 missions to free slaves as a conductor on the Underground Railroad.
Johnson has helmed the museum since 2017, collaborating with artists, educators, and community organizations to produce exhibitions and educational programs.
The free museum鈥檚 permanent exhibition,听Deep Roots, Rising Waters,听includes a recording of a Douglass speech decrying racism and slavery; a reward poster for Tubman; and other artifacts celebrating the contributions of Marylanders including the late US Supreme Court justice Thurgood Marshall and explorer Matthew Henson.听
搁别惫颈蝉颈迟/搁别颈尘补驳颈苍别,听one of three rotating exhibitions,听features more than 100 photos from the听Afro American Newspapers,听which chronicled the civil rights movement in Maryland during the 1950s and 鈥60s. The exhibition runs through January 4 and coincides with Maryland governor Wes Moore鈥檚 declaration of 2024 as the Year of Civil Rights to mark the 60th anniversary of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964.
鈥淢useums are such powerful places,鈥 says Johnson, who听previously worked as executive director of Prince George鈥檚 African American Museum and Cultural Center. 鈥淭hey bring history to life and fire the imaginations of young people. Getting to see that in real time is incredibly powerful.鈥