Anacostia Community Museum

by: Eli Alford Jr.

Image Information

Caption:

Original Source: Anacostia Neighborhood Museum, Smithsonian Institution

Location: Smithsonian Institution Archives, Institutional History Division.

URL: www.siarchives.si.edu/.../ thisday/september.htm

Description:

The Anacostia Museum was created by the Smithsonian Institution in 1967. The museum was originally called the Anacostia Neighborhood Museum and built out of the Old Carver movie theater. This museum was the brainchild of Smithsonian Secretary S. Dillon Ripley to build an “experimental store front museum.” This was intended “to provide a neighborhood museum in a deprived area whose residents seldom ever get out downtown. The Carver Theater was aquired by the Smithsonian in March of 1967, the hope was to convert the theater into a museum with the help of local citizens. The goal of the museum is to encourage, “the collection, protection, and preservation of materials that reflect the history and traditions of families, organizations, individuals, and communities.” The longtime director of the museum John Kinard, describes the museum as “a combination museum, cultural arts center, meeting place for neighborhood groups and a skill training facility. The museum’s role is to enliven the community and enlighten the people it serves.”

African American Role:

The Anacostia Museum was designed and opened in September of 1967 as a diversion to the increased animosity and frustration of district blacks. The assasination of Malcolm X, the Watts, Newark and Detroit riots, and the increased Civil Rights unrest across the country played an indirect role in the building of the museum.23 In a conversation with Gail Sylvia Lowe, an Anacostia Museum archivist and historian, she describes the relationship between the Civil Rights movement and the museum as; not a direct response to a specific Civil Rights event, but a response to the energy of the time. It allowed inner city residents mainstream cultural activites that were not available.24 The Anacostia Museum is the repository for artifacts, documents, and experiences of the residents of Anacostia. The museum in itself is a historic community landmark that as Kinard puts it ‘enlivens and enlightens’. This museum attempts to preserve the African American experience in Washington D.C. and across the nation.

References:

Fitzpatrick, Sandra. Maria R. Goodwin. 1999. The Guide to Black Washington: Places and Events of Historical and Cultural Significance in the Nation’s Capital. New York: Hippocrene Books. pg.51

Smithsonian Institute, Historic Pictures- Short Stories. http://www.si.edu/archives/historic/history.htm.

Anacostia to Get ‘Store Front Museum’. Clopton, William. The Washington Post, Times Herald; Apr 14, 1967; ProQuest Historical Newspapers The Washington Post (1877 - 1990) pg. C10

Welcome to the Anacostia Museum. http://anacostia.si.edu/.

The Wreckage of a Dream’. Tucker, Keely. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A27044-2004Aug23.html. The Washington Post. August 24, 2004.