A new museum opened Saturday in Alton Park aims to educate Chattanoogans and visitors about African American history, civil rights and current issues.
The African American Education and Heritage Museum, run and curated by the Alton Park Development Corporation, will eventually have three sections, corporation President Elenora Woods said. The museum is in the Chattanooga Civic Center at Mountainside.
"We're just really excited to be giving that part of our history, which is African history," Woods said by phone before the opening, "and telling it from the beginning all the way to the world today."
On Saturday, the first phase opened to the public.
(READ MORE: Black Caucus lawmakers talk schools, guns and other priorities in Chattanooga)
It's currently showing paintings depicting slavery by local artist Jerry Allen, as well as art, archival documents and displays about the slave trade and civil rights history, including Chattanooga civil rights group Operation Push. Photos and paintings of figures, including Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr. and Mary McLeod Bethune, hang next to a copy of the Emancipation Proclamation and a diagram of the interior of a slave ship.
Future sections of the museum are set to feature more civil rights organizations, historically Black colleges and universities and the "Divine Nine" historically Black sororities and fraternities.
The museum's exhibits will change continually, Woods said. It's also open to submissions from local artists for future displays, she said. Visits to the museum will include a tour from one of its two tour guides, she said.
"If you come today, and you see this great stuff today, when you come back the next time you want to see something different," she said at the museum. "We want you to be educated and ask some good questions to your tour guide — like, who was this person?"
If you go
What: African American Education and Heritage Museum
Where: 701 Hooker Road, Chattanooga (former Piney Woods Elementary School)
When: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday through Sunday, expanded weekday hours expected soon
Cost: $15 adult admission, free for children. Senior and military discounts available.
Woods said the museum will be free for children and open for school groups.
"We don't want the kids to miss out on the opportunity of learning about history — and not just for Black people," Woods said by phone. "This is for white people, for Indian, Hispanic, because we feel that every culture has something to offer."
Saturday's opening included a performance by The Howard High School's Hustlin' Tigers dance team and African drumming from Mawre Kofi. State Rep. Yusuf Hakeem, D-Chattanooga, Hamilton County Mayor Weston Wamp and county Commissioner Joe Graham, R-Lookout Valley, who helped secure funding for the facility and renovations, attended a ribbon-cutting.
"To understand Chattanooga's history, and to understand the history of Hamilton County, you'd have to understand the African American history of our community," Wamp said before the ribbon was cut.
The museum also plans to offer classes for adults on African heritage and history — from the cradle of civilization all the way through current topics like social media, gerrymandering and reparations.
"Not only are you looking at pictures, but you have the opportunity to study," Woods said at the museum.
Harold Bryson, a longtime educator, signed on as the museum's historian and teacher at the recommendation of local activist Johnny Holloway, who is featured in the museum.
Bryson worked in schools as a science teacher, he said, but focused his personal research on African and African American history. He said he wants the classes to be conversations between the participants, who will each bring their perspectives and backgrounds to the classes.
"It's about human rights and respecting people's culture, if I had to sum it up," he said at the museum. "You have to have sane, sober-minded people in the same room to discuss. You can't go in and take the myth or taboo, you got to be open-minded."
The scheduling of the classes will be determined based on people who express interest, Bryson said.
Contact Ellen Gerst at egerst@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6319.