California Museum's self-guided Black History Tour focuses on contributions of Black Californians
SACRAMENTO – Black history is on full display at the California Museum in downtown Sacramento for Black History Month—a time to honor the achievements and contributions made by African Americans.
"Museums are cultural spaces where we as communities get to come together and often tell those stories that are left out of our history books," said Jessica Cushenberry, the public program specialist at the California Museum.
Cushenberry is behind this year's self-guided Black History Tour focusing on the contributions of Black Californians.
"What we've done is we've gone through incorporating the African American experience in impact into several of our signature exhibits," Cushenberry said. "So, you can see the impact that Black and Brown people, particularly Black American people, have made here in California."
The self-guided tour highlights changemakers in the community, the arts, education, and even notable individuals still making history.
"This here is the Kamala Harris portion of our women-inspired exhibit. It's titled the first, not the last and it talks about a little bit of her childhood all the way through her vice presidency," Cushenberry said.
Also, part of the self-guided tour is the Our War Too: Women in Service exhibit. It's on loan from the World War II Museum in Louisiana.
"These are personal pieces. You'll see more than 200 artifacts, uniforms, photographs and diaries from women who served," said Kim Guise, the National WWII Museum senior curator.
It also includes the story of a courageous World War II all-Black female battalion unit.
"We have currently on display in our temporary gallery space information about the Six Triple Eight, which has been growing in popularity and fame lately," Cushenberry said.
Who deployed to Europe to process and deliver a backlog of mail important for military morale at the time.
This specific exhibit even comes with an artificial intelligence-generated display of female servicemembers like Romay Davis, part of the Six Triple Eight unit.
"You can ask her pre-listed questions," Cushenberry said. "You can even actually talk to her and she'll respond to you. It's kind of like having a conversation with a loved one, and she's very warm and friendly and you get to hear about her experiences."
This self-guided Black History Tour showcases many other trailblazers leaving a lasting impact on the Golden State.
"These videos are really interesting in my opinion because you get to hear a live perspective from people who live here, and it gets to be their voice telling you instead of someone else saying 'this is what the Black experience is' or 'this is what the female experience is here in California,'" Cushenberry said.
Anyone who would like to check out the self-guided Black history exhibit at the California Museum can purchase a ticket in advance and download the digital map.
