Heart and soul of Black History Museum
Mary Lauderdale oversees visitor services and operations at the Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia, where she has worked for more than 20 years. The museum, whose mission is “to preserve stories that inspire,” is now celebrating its 40th year.
Photo by Glenda C. Booth
Artist Martha Jones-Carter’s quilt, titled “Innocence,” was part of the Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia’s exhibition called “Stop the Pain.”
Photo courtesy of Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia
In Mary Lauderdale’s cozy office at the Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia in Jackson Ward, a framed quotation by former astronaut Dr. Mae Jemison hangs over the desk like a guiding light: “Never be limited by other people’s limited imaginations.”
As head of the museum’s operations and visitor services, Lauderdale, 62, is inspired by Jemison’s message and wants others to be as well.
Lauderdale told Fifty Plus
she wants to “tell the greater narrative…Black history is American history. We’re not told much, and there’s so much to uncover, especially in Virginia.”
Over the past 22 years, Lauderdale has taken on increasingly crucial tasks at the 40-year-old museum — from stuffing envelopes and writing paper receipts, to generating and curating exhibits, managing the collections and serving as the lead tour guide.
She also organizes traveling exhibitions, lectures and special events. She is the heart and soul of the museum, which attracts more than 20,000 visitors in a typical year — and even more through the outreach programs she creates.
“Mary is a vital part of our museum,” said Dr. Monroe E. Harris, Jr., president of the board of directors who has worked with Lauderdale for many years.
“Mary’s historical knowledge of the museum and operational expertise are unparalleled and indispensable. Much of the museum’s success is attributable to her. She is a very special lady.”
A timely, powerful program
In 2021, Lauderdale curated and staged an exhibit that spotlighted important events of 2020: the start of the pandemic, the controversy surrounding Richmond’s Confederate statues, and the unrest after George Floyd’s murder. The exhibit included photographs, quilts and other art, and was divided into three sections, titled “Say Their Names,” “Unsay Their Names” and “Stop the Pain.”
The “Say Their Names” section included African Americans like Floyd and Breonna Taylor, who were killed by police officers. Images of General Robert E. Lee and Confederate statues could be found in the “Unsay Their Names” section. For the “Stop the Pain” section, the Kuumba Afrikan American Quilt Guild of Richmond made wall hangings depicting some of the year’s and history’s most painful events.
“We must learn the stories and pass them on,” Lauderdale said. “It enriches all of us personally. It’s not race, creed or color. It’s the human story.”
Lauderdale studied engineering at Boston University and the former Spring Garden College. While working at Philadelphia’s Franklin Institute, she attended school at night. In her early career, Lauderdale designed office interiors.
When she moved to Richmond in 1995, Lauderdale began volunteering at the museum. That’s when she “finally had a chance to choose something meaningful,” she said. “Designing cubicles can have its rewards, but preserving African American history has more.”
Quilting for healing
Lauderdale lives in the East End with her two dogs. She says she is blessed with 15 nieces and nephews and 15 great-nieces and nephews. When she’s not at work or with family, she’s most likely quilting.
In 2001, Lauderdale founded Sisters of the Yam, an African American Quilters Guild. The name comes from a 1993 book by the late Gloria Jean Watkins, an African American writer better known by her pen name, bell hooks, who passed away in December.
The yam, or sweet potato, is considered a healing fruit. Sisters of the Yam do not quilt for money. Rather, they consider quilting as engaging in “creativity for relief” — a way to heal, especially after a death or loss.
They donate one quilt every year for the Black History Museum’s fundraising raffle. The quilters also make 200 stuffed hearts each year for the Medical College of Virginia’s incoming students as a sign of appreciation for their hard work.
Inside the museum
With crenelated brick towers that punctuate the Richmond skyline, the Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia is housed in the 1895 Armory building — the nation’s only 19th-century armory built for an African American militia. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and the Virginia Landmarks Registry.
The museum’s collection includes art, textiles, photographs, rare books, musical recordings and many other artifacts.
Commanding the reception area is the actual sign from Richmond’s former Woolworth store, which was the site of a 1960s sit-in protesting racial segregation.
A 35-foot touchscreen timeline highlights significant international, national and state events, including Nat Turner’s rebellion against his enslavers; Irene Morgan’s 1944 arrest for refusing to give up her seat on a bus (11 years before Rosa Parks’ arrest), an act that resulted in a U.S. Supreme Court case reversing Virginia law on segregated seating; a 1951 student strike at Farmville’s Moton High School protesting substandard schooling; and Douglas Wilder’s 1989 election as the country’s first Black governor.
A bronze bust of Oliver Hill by Paul D. DiPasquale dominates one space. Hill was a Black Virginia lawyer whose cases helped desegregate public schools.
A sculpture by Riggs Ward Design of the still-standing Emancipation Oak at Hampton University memorializes the tree under which freed, formerly enslaved people attended their first classes in 1861.
In other permanent exhibits, visitors learn how enslaved people resisted their oppressors, the many injustices of the Jim Crow era, Virginia political leaders’ resistance to school desegregation, and the landmark U.S. Supreme Court Brown v. Board of Education decision that outlawed public school racial segregation.
There are many stories of heroes and heroines, such as local Black entrepreneur Maggie Walker, who started a newspaper, department store, insurance company and bank.
Wendell Scott, from Danville, Virginia, was the first African American to win a race in the Grand National Series, NASCAR’s highest level.
Richmonder Bill “Bojangles” Robinson tap danced with Shirley Temple and returned to Richmond in 1933, giving the city $2,000 for traffic lights.
What’s next
During normal times, Lauderdale organizes jazz concerts featuring local musicians in partnership with the Richmond Jazz Society. She hopes the museum will resume those performances in May.
An exhibit titled “Home: Fifty Years of Equal Housing in Virginia” will run until mid-April. It chronicles efforts to enforce the 1968 federal fair housing law, which Congress passed shortly after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s death.
From April to January 2023, an exhibit will celebrate the museum’s 40th anniversary, highlighting its 1981 founding and notable Virginians.
For more information about the Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia, located at 122 W. Leigh Street, visit blackhistorymuseum.org or call (804) 780-9093. Admission is $10; $8 for seniors and students.
