Voices From the Past: Multimodal Narratives of the DuSable Museum of African American History

• In Event: 34.042 - Collaborative Public History: Engaging the Public Through Multimodal Mechanisms and Methodologies

Abstract

Contextualizing public history can be daunting, through shifting cultural, historical, and socio-political contexts. Historians debate its validity, while praising its potential for social change. According to Burns (2013), “The first era of black ‘public history’ … [fell] between the late 1820s and the early 1900s…” Stewart and Ruffins (1986) also assert that, “... Afro-American public history… reflects the changing racial strategies and cultural ideologies of the black community, from integrationism to nationalism”. Embracing an African diasporic framework, this paper privileges the voice of museum founders, educators, curators, and historians who shaped local and national histories. More specifically, it explores oral histories of the oldest, nationally recognized, public museum of African American history in the United States.

Author

• Lori M. West, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign