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WORDS BY WAYNE DAWKINS

The latest addition to Baltimore’s museum circuit celebrates the lives and works of Maryland’s African-American community.

The pages of American history are filled with the works of African-Americans. Luminaries include Frederick Douglass, the persuasive abolitionist, editor and statesman; Harriet Tubman, who guided over 300 enslaved blacks to freedom; Thurgood Marshall, who was the first black US Supreme Court Justice; and Benjamin Banneker, a mathematician and astronomer who was appointed by George Washington to survey what would become Washington, DC.

These great historic figures, among many others, are celebrated at Baltimore’s new Reginald F Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture. Named for a city son who became the first African-American to own a Fortune 500 company (TLC Beatrice International), the $50-million museum opened its doors this summer.

There are more than 300 objects in the permanent exhibition, which is divided into three themes. “Building Maryland, Building America” explores the labor of both free and enslaved blacks that made great the Chesapeake Bay region and the country as a whole. “Things Hold, Lines Connect” is dedicated to the strength found in African-American families and communities throughout history, despite the oppression they suffered. “The Strength of the Mind” celebrates intellectual and artistic achievements.

The lives and deeds of American legends Banneker, Douglass, Lewis, Marshall and Tubman are vividly explained and illustrated, but just as intriguing are the many stories of less well-known Maryland men and women who succeeded against the odds.

See the commencement cap worn by Esther McCready, the first African-American admitted to the University of Maryland School of Nursing. McCready, with the legal help of a young Thurgood Marshall, successfully sued the university to enroll at the school in 1950. And despite the hostility she faced during her studies, she became the first black graduate of the school in 1953.

Another must-see is the 1800s-era manumission papers of Isaac Dorsey. Maryland was a slave state during the antebellum period. A number of blacks managed to raise money to buy their freedom or purchase the freedom of family members. Manumission papers were the proof of freedom they kept with them in order to prevent being returned to chattel slavery. Dorsey’s papers were donated by his great-grandson James Dorsey, a Baltimore business owner and civil rights-era activist.

Other significant Baltimore artifacts on display include a press and manual typewriter from The Afro-American Newspaper, used during the Jim Crow era. Founded in 1892 by former slave John H Murphy, the paper remains the longest running African-American family-owned newspaper in the nation.

Fine art objects on display include paintings by James Amos Porter, whose book Modern Negro Art was published in 1943, and who is known for his 1930 oil painting, Woman Holding a Jug. Barbara Pietila’s colorful quilts, which depict scenes from her Baltimore family’s history, stand out as some of the display’s most striking pieces. The work of Philip Reed, the 1850s ironworker and slave who cast The Statue of Freedom that sits on top of the Capitol in Washington, DC, may be the most famous.

Visitors can also learn about Pennsylvania Avenue, a bustling commercial strip in Baltimore that housed a lot of black-owned clubs in the early 1900s. Leading black entertainers of that era liked to dine and socialize there. In other cities, blacks were barred from patronizing the very clubs where they provided entertainment.

With all the informative, powerful exhibits on display, the museum should become an essential part of any Baltimore itinerary.

For more information, visit www.africanamericanculture.org

AirTran Airways provides daily, low-fare flights to Baltimore/ Washington (BWI). Visit www.AirTran.com for more details.

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