This year marks a major milestone for the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History.

60 years ago this month, Dr. Charles H. Wright and 32 members of the Detroit community agreed to support the creation of a museum about the black experience.

In honor of this anniversary, the museum is holding a free day of family activities on March 8th.

Here to talk more about that event and the museum's history is Kevin Davidson.

He is the Wright's longtime Director of Design and Fabrication Services.

Kevin, welcome to "American Black Journal".

- Thank you.

- Yeah.

- It's a pleasure to be here.

- So let's start with your history with the Wright, which goes back quite a way.

It's not quite 60 years.

- Not quite, 2/3.

- But to the majority of that, right?

How did you come to the museum?

- I actually was introduced to the museum in 1980, and I was on loan, placed on loan to the museum from the Detroit Council of the Arts at the time to work on an exhibit that focused on black insurance companies.

And we completed that project, and I went on and I got a call from the museum in 1982, and Dr. Wright wanted me to come in and work on an exhibit on black voting rights.

And so I met with him and he gave me a book and said, "This is something that you're gonna extract your script from."

I remember the author's name was Holt, I can't remember his first name, I think it was Robert Holt.

And so from there, he kind of paired me with one of the longtime volunteers, Margaret Zarif.

And she collected images, I did some additional research and designed and installed that exhibit on voting rights.

- Yeah, yeah.

- And he loved it.

- And he hired you.

- Yeah.

(both laughing) - And you've been there since.

- Right?

He invited, he said, "I need you to do one on Charles Drew."

And I did that.

- Oh wow, wow.

- And then he asked me to redesign the mobile unit, which traveled over all around the state.

And so I did that and he said, "Well, you know, you may as well stick around."

- Right, "We're gonna keep you here."

- Yeah.

- So it's really interesting to hear you talk about the things you were working on then.

You know, an exhibit about black insurance companies.

- Yes.

- An exhibit about voting rights.

- Yes.

- That really does sum up range of Dr. Wright's imagination - Yes.

And vision about what this could be, the full gamut of the black experience.

- Absolutely.

- And that's really a good way to describe the museum.

- Yes, yes it is, yes it is.

- Yeah talk about in those early days though, what the museum was like and how different it is now.

I mean, now it's basically like a monument, right?

- Right, right.

- I mean, it's this wonderful physical space back then it was a little more understated.

- Yeah it was located first in the basement of a three row house on West Grand Boulevard and Warren, right on the corner.

It was Dr. Wright's residence, you know, he and his family lived there.

And so when he founded the museum, he set up exhibits in the basement.

He eventually moved out, moved downtown and basically went in and converted all of those spaces to gallery spaces.

So when I started, part of my job too was to convert some spaces so I worked with a carpenter and we went in and you know, tore out walls and you know, did some plastering, and I converted some spaces, and so I started installing exhibits.

It's a house, it's a three row house.

So, you know, when we had tours, you know, you had to take 'em up the stairs into the gallery, back out and into the next building- - [Stephen] And the next one.

- And back out and then into the next building and back out.

Dr. Wright's sister volunteered with us at the time, Pearl Battle, and it was the two of us.

You know, conducting these tours through the building and you know, we went from that to a structure that we built from the ground up in the Cultural Center that's occupied by CCS now, on the corner of Frederick Douglas and Brush.

And even before we moved into that building, plans were already underway for the Phyllis facility we're in right now.

- [Stephen] Yeah for the museum itself.

- [Kevin] Yes, yeah.

- [Stephen] That everyone is so familiar with now.

- [Kevin] Yes, yeah so Dr. Wright had his vision and then Coleman Young had his vision.

- [Stephen] Yeah that's right.

- And so they kind of merged and Coleman Young came up with the funding to support the construction and to maintain the facility.

- Yeah so, yeah talk about the difference between making exhibits in the basement of a three row house and the space you have now.

I'm thinking of the Jefferson exhibit that was there just a few years ago.

- Oh yeah.

- The wonderful art and the costume exhibit that was there last year.

- Yes.

- I mean, these are large scale- - Yes.

- Kinds of exhibits now.

Very different from being in a basement.

- It's a different world.

You know, everything had to be put together by hand.

And I'm taking little litters and creating, you know, these introductory panels and everything had to be constructed by hand back then, more time consuming, you know, we were doing key lines for prints and all of that.

So it was different world.

And of course, you know, when you compare just the space you're talking about, you know, a bathroom versus a mansion.

- [Stephen] Right, right.

- You know, so.

But along with the change in facilities, you know, you can bring in contractors.

And so that's part of what I do is, you know, do the elevations and floor plans, and construction drawings and they take those and you know, build these platforms.

- [Stephen] Create these, yeah.

- Cases, and- - I mean, they're experiences, right?

- Yes, yes.

- I mean, I always feel like you're walking through the subject matter.

- Yes.

- When I'm there.

- That's our goal.

- Yeah.

- You know, and I worked on our core exhibit Being Still We Rise and we wanted to make that fully immersive.

And so we certainly achieved that with that exhibit.

And you know, we continue to pursue that.

- Yeah, let's talk about March 8th and this celebration at the museum.

What will people find when they come to the museum?

- Well, it's called History in the House.

And it's a free event open to the public.

We've got the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater coming through, they're have a conversation in our theater and there's a VIP reception that's also a part of that.

And we have a whole list of programs going on throughout the day, including gallery talks.

And we're inviting all of the Wright babies.

- Yeah Wright babies, right?

- Some 7,000 of them.

- Yeah, right?

- To the museum.

- I happen to be one of them.

- Yes, we can celebrate that.

- Yeah no, there's so many people.

There are so many people, especially my age.

- Yeah, yeah.

- African Americans in this community who were delivered by Dr. Wright.

- Exactly.

- His name is on our birth certificate.

- Absolutely.

- That's a huge part of his legacy.

And I always feel like in some ways that was part of the inspiration for him, that he was helping to perpetuate and create the black community here through his work.

And that the museum is a way to preserve that.

- Absolutely, I love that perspective.

- To memorize, and remember, and celebrate it.

- Yeah and, you know, whenever he had patients come through, they got a spiel.

You know, I got this museum, I want you to support it.

- I want you to help with this, right?

- Yeah, yeah.

- He was always- - He was always doing that.

- Was always pushing that idea and... And this 60th anniversary, you guys have a lot of other things as well for us.

- During the course of the year, we have these conversations with our President and CEO, Neil Barkley.

- Yes.

- One of the standout conversations is gonna be with Regina Carter, who is from Detroit.

- [Stephen] Yes one of my absolute favorite Detroiters.

- Me too.

- I'm just in love with her.

And her music is unbelievable, right?

- Yes, it is.

- Yeah.

- Yeah and so she's got this incredible presentation.

That focuses on Black Bottom Paradise Valley, you know, and so she's playing and it's beautiful.

And so she'll be here engaging in that conversation and performance in May.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- And so we have those types of performances going on throughout the year.

We're looking to have this culmination of the gathering of Wright babies take place sometime around the gala.

And at the very least, we're looking to photograph as many those- - As many as you can.

- Yeah who get registered with us.

So on the 8th we'll have these little cards with QR codes, you'll be able to input your name and then we'll make contact with you and you get to participate in the programming we have going on throughout the year that's dedicated to that as part of our 60th.

- Yeah well it's a, it's a huge milestone.

And of course the museum is such a rock in this- - Yes it is, absolutely.

- In this community.

Kevin this is really great to have you here.

Thanks for joining us.

- Oh it's my pleasure, thank you so much.

- Yeah all right up next, we're gonna hear about a play that was produced by the organization Teen Hype.