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Blacks in Wax Museum
posted Thursday, 16 November 2006
It was a bright day last Saturday when I found myself in Baltimore. So I made my way through tortuous Baltimore city traffic to the Great Blacks in Wax Museum. It is located on 1601 East North Avenue--in a relatively rundown part of town with dilapidated residential buildings within viewing distance. There was some reconstruction work happening to some of the roads and buildings, and as you peered around, you could see seemingly jobless youth loitering around. There was hardly any parking space, so one had to find a parking spot and feed the meter if need be.I finally made into the Museum. It just happens that the Museum was formerly residential quarters that was converted into a make-shift museum. There were paintings and sculpture hanging or adorning the many twists and turns of this Museum. At the entrance to the Museum, you had to pay the obligatory $9 in order to get permission to explore the contents within. Without wasting much time, I paid for my ticket and was admitted across a swinging door into the wax museum.
The National Blacks in Wax Museum is a little museum created and maintained for the singular purpose of capturing and remembering the black experience in the New World--from the dark hideous past of Slavery to the steamy days of intense activism for Black Civil Rights. As you stood in front of these silent wax figures or read the accompanying literature on many of the wax figures you saw, you could not help but make some sort of deep spiritual connection to a time when man suffered the greatest indignity, torture and persecution from his fellow man.
Now as I look back over the years, I can't help but be grateful for the valiant dead who by their sweat and tears planted the delicate seeds of Freedom--and nourished it with their blood. I will not waste your time rehashing in detail the travails of the unfortunate sons and daughters of Mother Africa who fell for the many deceptions of the European mercantilist and colonizing outfit which landed on many of Africa's shores. When they eventually found themselves on the ships bound for Europe, America or the Caribbean only then did they realize their Slavery had begun. Here is a short slideshow I created to help me share this tour with you. There are many things I intentionally left out or failed to capture (especially Literature on the important contributions of the wax figures towards Black Freedom), but I hope the little I have compiled will give you a faint idea what this little Museum is all about.
Ultimately, you may need to read up on some of these historical facts for yourself, or search in your area (if you live in the contiguous US) for a museum dedicated to the remembrance of Black History. Also, it would be great if a much bigger, better furnished and securely guarded Black History Museum could be found in Washington DC. The contribution of Black people in shaping America into what it is cannot be lightly papered over--which is perhaps why it is worthy of good mention that at last Dr Martin Luther King will finally get a memorial in Washington DC's National Mall.
Enjoy!
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