Black History 101 Mobile Museum comes to Lansing, East Lansing
LANSING — The Black History 101 Mobile Museum will arrive in Lansing today in honor of Black History Month.
The museum is an award-winning collection of more than 7,000 original artifacts of Black History memorabilia dating from the trans-Atlantic slave trade era to hip-hop culture.
Approximately 200 of the more than 7,000 artifacts will be on display at free events today and Wednesday.
Detroit native Khalid el-Hakim, the museum's founder, has collected materials since 1991.
"Initially, I took a class with Dr. David Pilgrim at Ferris State University, who founded the Jim Crow Museum at Ferris State," el-Hakim said. "He used artifacts in class to teach about the origins of racism in America. It was just a powerful way of teaching and a very transformative way of teaching, and I was inspired by that."
The mobile museum will be at Sparrow Hospital today and at the East Lansing Public Library on Wednesday. In addition, el-Hakim will give a lecture at 1 p.m. Wednesday at the library.
This year's exhibit focuses on the major events and personalities of 1968.
The collection will include original Ku Klux Klan memorabilia from Howell and materials that come from Robert Miles, the former grand dragon of the Michigan KKK, documents, and Malcolm X materials on display.
"We’re looking at King’s assassination, but also material from politics of 1968 with documents from Shirley Chisholm and from Carl Stokes, the first black mayor elected to a major American city, Cleveland," el-Hakim said.
"The exhibit also includes sports from 1968, including the 1968 Olympics with John Carlos and Tommie Smith, Muhammad Ali and Arthur Ashe. For music, there is material from Jimi Hendrix, Sly and the Family Stone, Aretha and James Brown."
There will also be material that looks at the impact of 1968 on the present day with materials from hip hop culture and Black Lives Matter.
El-Hakim finds most of his memorabilia and artifacts in antique shops, flea markets, garage sales and estate sales
The home base for the mobile museum is Detroit. El-Hakim taught in Detroit Public Schools for 15 years, and left in 2011 to focus on his museum full-time. Since then, he has earned a masters degree from Western Michigan University and is currently finishing a PhD. at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
el-Hakim was recently named one of the 100 Men of Distinction for 2017 by Black Enterprise and is known as the “Schomburg of the hip-hop generation” because of his passionate commitment to carry on the rich tradition of the Black Museum Movement.
Contact Vickki Dozier at (517) 267-1342 or firstname.lastname@example.org. Follow her on Twitter @vickkiD.
Black History 101 Mobile Museum
Sparrow Hospital: The free event is open to the public from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. today on the third floor of Sparrow Hospital, near the walkway over Michigan Avenue, 1215 E. Michigan Ave., Lansing
East Lansing Public Library: The free exhibit will be available for public view from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday at the library, 950 Abbot Road, East Lansing. Khalid el-Hakim will give a lecture at 1 p.m.