Montgomery Museum

 From The Washington Post this morning:

 

By Jen Balderama Associate editor  Email Last year, I noticed Danté Stewart, a memoirist and theologian, tweeting about how a visit to the Legacy Museum in Montgomery, Ala., had deeply moved him. Danté and I had been trading messages for a while, chatting about pieces he might write for Post Opinions. Then, I saw his tweet: “Jesus. This museum has me shook.” So, I asked him: Have you thought of writing about it? What he produced is a meditation on Black history and Black parenthood, on his mother’s legacy and the legacy he hopes to pass on to his children, on a nation’s attempts to erase Black stories and Black parents’ refusal to let that happen. “When I was growing up,” Danté explains, “my mama had a ritual. Anytime we were in a city other than our own, we would visit the nearest Black museum. … To my mama, these trips were more than trips. They were time travel.”  Now, “I am the father of two beautiful Black children,” he continues. “And like my mama, I have found a sanctuary and barracks in museums that tell Black stories. … A good Black museum is a portal, a world, a witness to Black grief and joy, a place that reminds us that no bit of American soil has not been touched by Black blood or Black brilliance.”  The essay strikes me as essential reading when legislators, school administrators and parents are suppressing the histories all Americans should know. (I’m looking at you, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Mississippi, New Hampshire, Oklahoma.)  Please read — or listen to Danté’s heartfelt audio rendition. And then? Perhaps do as he invites us all to do: “Visit a museum. Learn about the history of your fellow citizens. And by all means, take your children.”