LIFE

Riley museum hosts African American Heritage conference

Marina Brown

Democrat correspondent

Museums are the repositories of life — sometimes life lived in the not-so-distant past — sometimes lives lived just around the corner.

Althemese Barnes, founding director of the John Gilmore Riley Center Museum in Tallahassee, is a believer in preserving those slices of life, in memory, artifacts, and in bricks and mortar. But after a career as an educator and 18 years as the State Secretary of the NAACP, she knew that collaboration was an important key to preserving history — in this case, the history of African American life and culture.

Paula Gangopadhyay, the Deputy Director for Museum Services and John Franklin, the cultural historian and senior manager in the Office of External Affairs visit the Riley House Museum to view works from the Montague Collection on Wednesday.

With the founding of the Florida African American Heritage Preservation Network, Barnes established a group of over 50 museums, preservation organizations, universities, as well as public and private parties to not only keep history relevant inside museum walls, but to bring it forward into communities.

This Network has become a model for other state’s preservation efforts and won for Althemese Barnes appointment by President Obama to the Board of the recently opened National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington.

The publication of the Florida Heritage Trail Guide which identifies and explains important African American sites from Key West to the Panhandle is one example of the ongoing commitment of the Network to provide informational and technical assistance to organizations involved in preserving African American cultural history.

John Franklin, the cultural historian and senior manager in the Office of External Affairs, from right, and Paula Gangopadhyay, the Deputy Director for Museum Services are welcomed to the Riley House Museum by Clinton Byrd, to view works from the Montague Collection on Wednesday.

Today through Saturday, Tallahassee, in cooperation with many local and state participating organizations, will host the Biennial FAAHPN Conference. Selected over larger sites such as Chicago, Pittsburg, and Baltimore, the conference features nationally known experts in museum and African American history preservation. Paula Gangopadhyay, Deputy Director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services, and John Franklin, Director of Partnerships and Internal Programs for the National Museum of African American Culture, will be keynote speakers.

And Tallahassee will showcase itself.

As part of the FAAHPN Conference, a bus will take participants on a city-wide tour to visit Sleepy Hollow, The Grove Museum, the Old Jail, the City Cemetery, The Union Bank, and the FAMU Meek-Eaton Archives, among other sites. A highlight of the tour is the “unveiling” of several remarkable pieces of African American history from the Montague Collection including a handwritten note by Frederick Douglass; recordings of Booker T. Washington speaking; an original Bessie Smith poster, and George Washington Carver manuscripts, all of which will soon go on display at the Riley House Museum.

The culmination of the conference will be the USCT (United States Colored Troops) Abolitionist’s Ball, held at the Goodwood Museum on Friday, one day before the commemoration of Emancipation Day in Florida. All of the museum professionals agree that they hope Tallahassee and its visitors will take advantage of the huge repository of historical information and resources available at the Riley House Center Museum and the Meek-Eaton Black Archives on the FAMU campus.

Contact: info@rileymuseum.org and famu.edu/meba for more information on two of Tallahassee’s centers of African American culture’s historical preservation.

Contact Marina Brown at mcdb100@comcast.net