20 black LGBT leaders discuss the new African American history museum — Metro Weekly
“I love American history. When I visit a town, the first thing I do is find the local museum.”
For months, Earl J. Fowlkes drove past the new Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, watching as the building slowly took shape. And now, on the cusp of its official opening, Saturday, Sept. 24, he’s overjoyed.
“This is our museum,” he says. “It’s our history.”
That history — over 400 years of oppression, liberation, struggle, recognition, pain, joy, achievement, and one incredible dream — is compressed into the 400,000-square-foot museum, at the intersection of Constitution Ave. NW and 14th St. NW. It has taken more than a decade to complete, and if there is one sentiment nearly universal among members of D.C.’s black LGBT community, it’s that the museum’s launch is long overdue.
JUNE CRENSHAW (55, Executive Director of Wanda Alston Foundation): I am really looking forward to experiencing it with my 7-year-old granddaughter. She and I spend a lot of time at the National Museum of the American Indian, Air and Space, and Natural History. I can’t wait to see her reaction to touring the museum and being surrounded by history and people that look like her.
CRENSHAW: It’s very important. When I first started in my position as Executive Director of the Wanda Alston Foundation, I had an African American lesbian resident of the Wanda Alston House come to me to say she had never seen or known a lesbian like me before, and that she wanted to be just like me. I am not special, but what that experience emphasized for me is that we don’t have enough LGBTQ role models that our youth can connect with. We don’t have a place to learn our LGBTQ history. Covering LGBTQ issues and history will fill a gap in our community.
