African American Museum in Dallas gets $3 million to digitize 50-year-old collection

African American Museum in Dallas gets $3 million to digitize 50-year-old collection

By Zara Amaechi
Arts Access Reporter

The African American Museum in Dallas has secured $3 million to preserve and digitize its 50-year-old collection. The museum announced the donation from the Texas Historical Commission on Tuesday.

The museum also received $100,000 from Google for the project. The funds will allow the museum to move fragile materials into climate-controlled storage and make the collection accessible online to scholars and the public.

“It doesn’t matter what museum you visit or support, places that collect history and culture are storytellers,” said chief program officer Margie J. Reese.

The museum’s collection includes fine and folk art by Romare Bearden, Clementine Hunter and Mose Tolliver, along with archival treasures like early Dallas newspapers, and papers from activist Juanita Craft and the late U.S. Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson.

One highlight is the Sepia magazine collection, containing more than 40,000 images documenting decades of Black American culture. The photographs feature Civil Rights icons such as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, political leaders like Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, and entertainers Aretha Franklin and Cicely Tyson.

“This is the place where creativity and legacy intersect,” Reese said.

Right now, the collections are stored in facilities that aren’t climate controlled, leaving them vulnerable to damage. The new funding will allow researchers and archivists to examine each item, provide historical context and carefully photograph or scan it for digital archive. The museum also plans to invite students to get involved with the archival process to help them learn about conserving art and Black culture.

Reese said this effort will expand access to the collection and ensure its survival for future generations.

“What we want to end up with is opening a pathway,” Reese said. “So that African American scholars and students can learn from our partners from all walks of life, all cultural backgrounds, and land in a place where they then are able to see themselves in those roles, as professionals.”

By Zara Amaechi

Zara is a reporter producer with Arts Access, an arts journalism initiative powered by The Dallas Morning News and KERA.

This story, originally published in The Dallas Morning News, is reprinted as part of a collaborative partnership between The Dallas Morning News and Texas Metro News. The partnership seeks to boost coverage of Dallas’ communities of color, particularly in southern Dallas.