CURRENT EXHIBITIONS

Dr. Carter G. Woodson called not for an isolated Black history, but for a more just and complete “history of the world void of national bias, race hate, and religious prejudice.” Answering Dr. Woodson’s call for a properly contextualized Black history that would offset the erasures of African Americans in the larger American tapestry, the California African American Museum, in its continuing efforts to preserve, interpret, and collect African American history and culture, presents Coloring America: Selections from the California African American Museum’s Permanent History Collection. Broken into four thematic chapters (West Africa & the African Diaspora, Local History, Sports, and Entertainment), this exhibition is both a testament to the varied and diverse contributions of African Americans, and an overview of some relevant historical objects and artwork donated to or purchased by the Museum. Coloring America includes African masks, jewelry, and artifacts; early Leimert Park brochures, local church artifacts, and images of the Watts and 1992 L.A. uprisings; historical sports memorabilia and images, select playbills, programs, sheet music, 19th Century stereographs, and Harper’s Weekly cartoons, and various pieces from our Joe Turner and Howard Moorehead collections.

Coloring America installation photos by Gene Ogami.