Museum offers Civil Rights tours during Black History Month
BALTIMORE —This month the Great Blacks in Wax Museum in east Baltimore is celebrating Black History Month as well as the 50th anniversary of equal rights for all.
BALTIMORE —This month the Great Blacks in Wax Museum in east Baltimore is celebrating Black History Month as well as the 50th anniversary of equal rights for all.
The folks at the museum
said Black History Month is all about teaching others about black culture.
"It's about
teaching, specifically our children, about the accomplishments of great
individuals of African descent, so we hope to get a lot of school kids and
other people, as well, coming into the museum," said museum spokesman Jon
Wilson.
The museum's exhibits and
life-like wax figures chronicle the history of black people in America. This
year for Black History Month, it's focusing on the Civil Rights movement
because of the 50th anniversary of the Equal Rights Bill.
"This legislation by
Lyndon B. Johnson made the law that you had to do things more equally and give
people their rights no matter what their ethnicity," Wilson said.
The museum is also
offering "Civil Sights for Civil Rights" tours for groups that get
visitors out and about in Baltimore to see historic venues.
"Baltimore has a
very, very rich heritage as it related to Civil Rights, basically because of
the Mitchell family and Thurgood Marshall being a Baltimorean. You can go to a
lot of historical churches in this area. The Niagara Movement, which was the
beginning of the NAACP -- you can go to these different churches," Wilson
said.
Museum officials said
they expect 8,000-10,000 people to come through the doors in February. They
hope each visitor takes away understanding and an acceptance.
"We want people to
walk away with an understanding that, for us to work together, the community
has to work together and have respect for different cultures," Wilson
said.
The museum is open every
day in February, but it operates year-round.
