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Ava Harmon: After two decades and two moves the Jim Crow Museum at Ferris State University is moving to its own space on campus and will open to the public September 30th.
To find out why, WCMU's Tina Sawyer talked recently with museum founder David Pilgrim.
Pilgrim starts the conversation by explaining what can be found in the museum and how their new space will inspire more discussion about African American oppression and the way they pushed back.
David Pilgrim: The museum contains thousands of artifacts that document the history of anti-black racism and other forms of discrimination in America. The collection includes A lot of everyday objects like toys, advertisements, postcards, household items, popular culture, memorabilia were used to promote racial stereotypes.
Tina Sawyer: Now I understand the items over the years have accumulated and you've added to the collection and it's grown. So is that why you're moving from Ferris's Flight library to your own standalone building?
DP: That's one of the reasons. But also we wanted to tell deeper stories. And so we wanted to create a larger purpose-built facility and a space where, you know, you could have digital interpretations of objects. You could have the space to show the pushback. That is one of the major reasons we moved. is that in our old space, we didn't have the room to show how African Americans pushed back against oppression with activism, with achievements, and quite frankly, with just living everyday lives of dignity. And so the new building affords us more effectively, us to more effectively fulfill our mission to educate, engage in anti-racism work by telling all those stories.
TS: Now it's still on campus, right?
DP: The entrance to campus. As a matter of fact, it would be like one of the first buildings that you would see, which by the way, I think is a powerful testimony to the university's commitment is that it would be placed right at the entrance to the campus.
TS: And people may notice a flowing type facade on the outside of the new building. It's also called a scrim wall facade. So what's the significance of this type of architecture outside of your museum?
DP: In 1903, W.E.B. Du Bois, the famous African-American sociologist and activist, he wrote about a metaphor. He used the metaphor of a veil, V.E.I.L. to try to explain the separation between African Americans and white Americans, and his idea was that black people during Jim Crow were separated by this veil, and separated economically, socially, and all other ways. And he also argued that in order to truly understand race relations in this country, you had to acknowledge that there was a veil, and then you had to get to the other side of the veil, and so for us, that still scrim represents the veil. So people, when they come, they'll have to get on the other side to understand. And I'm also really proud that, sort of the focus here, we have a space of dialogue here, which is really beautiful. So anyhow, that's the purpose of that veil. It will obviously get a lot of attention because it's architecturally unlike other buildings that surround us.
TS: Okay, so it sparks more conversations starting with the veil?
DP: Throughout the space. It is, there as an emphasis on how did Americans and specifically, but not exclusively, how did African Americans respond and push back against Jim Crow? Because what we know is America is a much more democratic and egalitarian society than it was, and yet there's still racial challenges here. And so there are still lessons for us to learn.
AH: That was David Pilgrim, founder of the Jim Crow Museum at Ferris State University talking with WCMU's Tina Sawyer. The grand opening of the new location is Sept. 30 and Oct. 1.
