American History Traveling Museum

Through our national award-winning museum we educate individuals, communities, educators, organizations & students on the unspoken truths of american history.

Double tap on a photo below to learn more about a specific section of our museum.

MOTHER AFRICA

“Birth Place Of Civilization"

We are all Africans. While this statement may resonate with those who can trace their recent ancestry back to the continent, it may sound a little tenuous to those who have clear links else-where in the world. But it's true: more than 100,000 years ago, the first homo sapient appeared on African soil. Most evolutionary anthropologists and biologists agree the "Out of Africa" hypothesis, from which all humans developed in Africa and went fourth to inhabit the other continents. If this is the case, then the roots of every human family tree are firmly planted in Africa.

~ "Fandex Family Field Guides"

This section of the Traveling Museum connects Africa's global impact in the areas of its rich traditions, cultures, ritiuals nd ceremonies. Equally as important, are the global contributions in S.T.E.A.M. (Science, Technology, Engineering & Math)

Additional areas: Astronomy, Blacksmithing, and Medicine.

As a result, people of the African diaspora will gain a deeper understanding of the importance of positive self worth, self esteem, and our true identity.

AMERICAN CHATTEL SLAVERY

In 1661, Virginia colonists enacted a law that legitimized African slavery and provided that the status of an African child would be determined by the status of its mother. If the mother of a child was enslaved, then her child was doomed to American Chattel Slavery. In the following years, colonial Virginia passed more laws that severely restricted the rights of enslaved Africans and expanded the rights of owners of enslaved Africans. Each of the original colonies eventually followed Virginia's lead by enacting similar laws that promoted or recognized the enslavement of Africans.

This section of the Traveling Museum utilizes authentic artifacts, documents, and story boards, to expose the Impacts on enslaved Africans physically, spiritually, emotionally, and psychologically.

JIM CROW ERA

Thomas Dartmouth Rice, a struggling white actor, became famous by performing in blackface makeup

as "Jim Crow," an exaggerated, highly stereotypical black character. By 1838, the term "Jim Crow" was being used as a collective racial epithet for blacks, not as offensive as nigger, but as offensive as coon or darkie. The popularity of minstrel shows aided the spread of Jim Crow as a racial slur. By the end of the 19th century, Jim Crow was being used to describe laws and customs that oppressed blacks.

Jim Crow was the name of the racial caste system which operated primarily, but not exclusively in southern and border states, between 1877 and the mid 1960s.

Under Jim Crow, African Americans were relegated to the status of second class citizens. Jim Crow represented the legitimization of anti black-racism.

Many white christian ministers and theologians taught that whites were the chosen people, black were cursed to be servants, and God supported racial segregation.

Craniologists, eugenicists, phrenologists, and social darwinists, at every educational level, supported the belief that blacks were innately intellectually and culturally inferior to whites.

STILL WE RISE

African American Inventors / Inventions

Although American and Science books have been printed in this country for over 200 years nothing was ever mentioned about the men of color, who from the very beginning showed a penchant for making life a little easier for themselves by designing and fabricating a varity of work saving devices and ideas.

We will never know just how many farm tools or early hand operated machinery devices that black men and women may have collaborated in or completely designed.

Word has come down over the years of the greedy, unscrupulous overseers and slaveowners claiming ownership of these prizes and registering them at the patent office as their own inventions.

Some slaves received special treatment because of their genius and abilities in the building trades. Many of us forgot that the great ante bellium mansions throughout the south with the giant columns were the products of slave labor from start to finish. There were no trade unions to keep blacks from the craft phase of the building trades, from digging the foundations to the finest carpentry and detailing of these edifices, many of which are still standing. Blacks also worked as ironworkers, masons, wheelwrights, carriagemakers, glazers, cabinetmakers, and in all other crafts essential to the building trades.

Forward by J.W. Lewis

Vil's Service Inc.