Sacramento State’s UNiQUE program debuted the traveling exhibit “The True Black History Museum,” dedicated to teaching students about influential figures in American Black history inside the University Union Ballroom on Thursday.
Long black tables in the center of the museum room displayed decades’ worth of artifacts and tribal clothing from Africa, in a timeline dating all the way back to the 1700s.
Janay Jean-Pierre, the vice president of operations for the “The True Black History Museum,” based out of Detroit, said the exhibit was founded on the mission of preserving the history of Black people and showing the contributions they have made to the world.
“I would say a goal for us is just exposure because a lot of people don’t know much about Black history,” Pierre said. “In the curriculum, you really learn about a few people, like Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr., but we display a lot of great people that no one knows about.”
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Pierre said it was important for the museum to have an arrangement of artifacts to showcase the triumphs and tribulations Black Americans have faced in American history.
There were pins and pamphlets from political figures such as Shirley Chisholm, the first black woman to campaign for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, to even autographed albums from artists like Ice Cube and Aretha Franklin.
As students walked around, taking in the material, a large screen projected videos of interview clips from prominent social justice leaders and music videos from famous rap artists.
Azriel Jones, fourth-year criminal justice major, said that it was nice to be able to put a face to so many of the people she had spent years learning about and to see artifacts from many life-changing moments in history.
Jones said that it helped her not only realize how much her community has gone through, but also a reminder of the things that they have done for others.
“I think it’s important for everybody to know what we went through and we’re still going through,” Jones said. “Just so that they can be our allies and learn from us, and we can learn from them and all be united together.”
Third-year journalism major Na’Jay Lewis said how influential the museum exhibit was, and how nice it felt to see multiple generations’ worth of achievements from people he hadn’t learned about in school.
“It’s nice seeing people that look like me achieve such great things and it’s encouraging and inspiring for the next generation of Black people,” Lewis said.
Lewis said the exhibit is only step one for campuses across the country to move forward in educating people about the true history of this country, from every point of view. Pioneers of other ethnicities and genders deserve their praise for their achievements.
“We still have a lot of strides that we need to make in order to make this country more equal for everyone and more inclusive for everyone,” Lewis said. “I think this is a nice first step.”
