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Tuesday 10am - 5pm Wednesday 10am - 5pm Thursday 10am - 5pm Friday 10am - 3pm Saturday 10am - 3pm

America's Black Holocaust Museum, 401 W North Avenue, Milwaukee, WI (2026)

06/19/2026

Juneteenth and Freedom's Unfinished Work

Each year, Juneteenth commemorates one of the most significant moments in American history. On June 19, 1865, Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas, and announced that enslaved African Americans were free. For the last large population of enslaved people in the Confederacy, the promise of emancipation had finally arrived.

It was a moment of joy, relief, and triumph. It remains worthy of remembrance and celebration.

Yet Juneteenth also challenges us to confront a difficult truth: emancipation and liberation are not the same thing.

The institution of chattel slavery that held millions of Africans and their descendants in bo***ge was one of the greatest crimes in human history. Its abolition marked a profound moral achievement and a long-overdue recognition of human dignity. But the struggle for freedom did not end on June 19, 1865.

The 13th Amendment abolished slavery and involuntary servitude EXCEPT as punishment for a crime. In the decades that followed, Black Codes, convict leasing, racial terror, disenfranchisement, segregation, and other systems emerged to preserve power and control. The forms changed, but the struggle continued.

That pattern did not begin with slavery, nor did it end with slavery.

Today, millions of people around the world remain trapped in forced labor, human trafficking, debt bo***ge, and other forms of modern slavery. At the same time, countless others live under conditions that limit opportunity, security, and self-determination. Many work tirelessly yet remain unable to build wealth, secure stable housing, or exercise meaningful control over the circumstances of their lives.

These realities invite us to ask a deeper question: What does freedom truly mean?

If freedom is merely a legal status, then Juneteenth marks a partial victory. If freedom includes human dignity, self-determination, economic opportunity, security, and the full recognition of one's humanity, then Juneteenth becomes something more. It becomes a reminder that freedom is a continual pursuit.

There is another lesson embedded within this history.

Systems of bo***ge endure because people are taught to see themselves as separate from one another. Throughout history, human beings have been divided by race, nationality, religion, class, wealth, and countless other categories. These divisions have been used to justify slavery, conquest, segregation, exploitation, and violence. Once a society accepts that some lives possess greater value than others, injustice becomes easier to defend and harder to recognize.

The forms change. The underlying pattern remains.

Whenever people define themselves primarily by what separates them from others, freedom becomes fragile. The dehumanization that made slavery possible in the past continues to threaten humanity in the present. It appears wherever human worth is measured by status, power, profit, or identity rather than by our shared humanity.

This understanding stood at the heart of Dr. James Cameron's life and work.

A survivor of a lynching attempt in 1930, Cameron dedicated himself to preserving the history of the Black Holocaust so that future generations might learn from it. When he opened America's Black Holocaust Museum on Juneteenth in 1988, he chose a day that symbolized both remembrance and responsibility. The museum was never intended merely as a repository of history. It was created to illuminate the consequences of ignorance, hatred, and dehumanization while encouraging reconciliation, healing, and a deeper understanding of our common humanity.

Juneteenth is therefore more than a celebration of freedom gained. It is a call to examine the freedoms still denied, the injustices still tolerated, and the divisions that continue to separate people from one another.

We honor those who survived slavery. We honor those who resisted it. We honor those who expanded the boundaries of freedom in every generation that followed.

And we accept the responsibility that history places before us.

The work of emancipation began long before Juneteenth and continued long after it. The work of liberation remains unfinished still.

The question is whether we possess the courage, wisdom, and humanity to continue pursuing it.

Join ABHM this Juneteenth and throughout Civic Season. Explore events, reflect on history, and take part in shaping what comes next.
https://buff.ly/XKaAp6M

06/17/2026

In the summer of 1957, Black residents of Tuskegee, Alabama, launched one of the nation's most determined economic protests against voter suppression. On June 17, community members began a boycott of white-owned businesses after the Alabama Legislature approved a plan designed to strip Black citizens of their municipal voting rights.

The legislation, known as Act 140, dramatically redrew Tuskegee's city boundaries. The new map carved Black neighborhoods and the campus of Tuskegee Institute out of the city while leaving white neighborhoods inside. More than 400 Black registered voters lost their ability to participate in city elections. The measure transformed Tuskegee's boundaries into an irregular shape created for a single purpose: preserving white political control.

Black residents responded through organized collective action. Under the leadership of the Tuskegee Civic Association, they launched a selective buying campaign that encouraged people to spend their money only with businesses that respected their rights. Families traveled long distances to purchase groceries, clothing, and other necessities rather than support merchants in a city government that denied them representation.

The boycott demonstrated the power of economic resistance. For nearly four years, participants maintained remarkable discipline despite inconvenience and pressure. The campaign drew national attention and linked local struggles in Alabama to the broader movement for civil rights and voting rights. Leaders including Charles Gomillion helped transform community frustration into sustained action.

The effort achieved its ultimate victory in 1960 when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Gomillion v. Lightfoot that Alabama's racial gerrymander violated constitutional protections. The decision restored Tuskegee's boundaries and became an important precedent in the fight against racial discrimination in voting.

The Tuskegee boycott reminds us that the struggle for voting rights extended beyond the ballot box. Communities also used their economic power to defend citizenship, representation, and equal participation in American democracy.

More info:
https://time.com/archive/6887897/races-boycott-in-tuskegee/
https://encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/tuskegee-boycott/
https://www.abhmuseum.org/galleries/

Image:
1) The Tuskegee Boycott historical marker. Westside St. Tuskegee, AL
2) A map illustrating Alabama's 1957 redrawing of Tuskegee's city boundaries, which removed nearly all Black voters from the city limits. The action sparked the Tuskegee boycott and led to the landmark Supreme Court case Gomillion v. Lightfoot. Courtesy of Tuskegee University Archives.

06/16/2026

Civic Season is almost here! ✨

From Juneteenth through July 4, ABHM invites you to reflect on our nation’s past and help shape its future as we approach America’s 250th anniversary.

📅 June 19 | 12–3 PM | ABHM
🍕 Slice of Local History & Bingo — free pizza, free museum admission, family activities like arts & crafts led by the Milwaukee Public Museum and local history bingo led by ABHM Griots.

📅 June 20 | 12–2 PM | ABHM
✍🏾 Letter to America — explore Dr. James Cameron’s advocacy and join a writing workshop focused on civic action. This event is in partnership with WI Black Historical Society

📅 June 22 | 5–7:30 PM | MPL Good Hope Branch
📚 Community Dialogue, Book Club & Book Swap with Milwaukee Public Library at Good Hope Branch. We will discuss "Thomas Jefferson & Sally Hemings: An American Controversy" by Annette Gordon-Reed. Bring a book to pass along to a new reader in exchange for a different book.

📅 June 27 | 12–2 PM | ABHM
🎤 National Youth Day — free admission, Jr. Griot led tour, youth panel on patriotism and civics, and a community zine project.

📅 July 2 | 12–2 PM | ABHM
🧑‍🧑‍🧒‍🧒 Family History Day — free admission, a guided tour on the African American family, a family-history preservation workshop, and a chance to create your own “Museum of Me.”

Join us as we learn, connect, and imagine the next chapter of American history.

06/16/2026

A crowd gathered in Greenwood, Mississippi, on June 16, 1966, expecting another civil rights rally. Instead, they witnessed a moment that would help define a new chapter in Black political thought and activism.

That evening, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) chairman Stokely Carmichael (later Kwame Ture) stood before supporters participating in the March Against Fear and led them in a call that echoed across the nation: “We want Black Power!” The phrase had been used before, but Carmichael's speech transformed it into a rallying cry that would shape public conversations for years to come.

The March Against Fear began earlier that month when civil rights activist James Meredith set out to walk from Memphis, Tennessee, to Jackson, Mississippi. Meredith hoped to encourage Black voter registration and challenge the climate of intimidation that continued to discourage many African Americans from exercising their constitutional rights. On the second day of the march, a white gunman shot and wounded him. Civil rights organizations, including SNCC, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and the Congress of Racial Equality, joined together to continue the march in his name.

As the march moved through Mississippi, participants faced arrests, harassment, and threats. Carmichael himself was arrested in Greenwood after helping establish a campsite for marchers. Upon his release from jail, he addressed a crowd estimated at about 1,500 people. Frustrated by the slow pace of change and the persistence of racial violence, he called for Black communities to build political, economic, and social power of their own. The crowd answered with enthusiastic chants of “Black Power.”

For many Black Americans, the slogan expressed a desire for self-determination, community control, political representation, and pride in Black identity. It reflected growing demands for meaningful power alongside legal rights and voting access. The phrase soon became associated with a broader movement that influenced politics, education, culture, and organizing across the United States.

The Greenwood rally remains one of the defining moments of the modern Civil Rights Movement. On that June evening in 1966, a two-word slogan captured the aspirations of a generation and entered the nation's vocabulary.

More info:
https://buff.ly/SbFqDrg
https://buff.ly/wThCzcn
https://buff.ly/qZOMR9Q

Image:
1) Photojournalist Bob Fitch captured this iconic image at a civil rights rally in Greenwood, Mississippi, on June 16, 1966. Stokely Carmichael (later Kwame Ture) is visible near the center of the crowd with his raised hand extending above those gathered. Stanford University Library.

06/15/2026

Friday is Juneteenth Day. There will be a parade and pizza and free admission to the America's Black Holocaust Museum!
Do you plan to celebrate?
Tell us about it!

06/15/2026

On June 15, 1921, Bessie Coleman achieved what many believed was impossible. On that day, she earned her international pilot's license from the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale in France, becoming the first African American woman and the first person of Native American descent to receive the credential.

Born in Waxahachie, Texas, Coleman grew up in a large family that worked hard to survive the challenges faced by Black families in the segregated South. She excelled in school and dreamed of a larger world, but opportunities were limited. After a brief time at Langston University, financial hardship forced her to leave school and seek work.

Living in Chicago during the Great Migration, Coleman became fascinated by aviation. Inspired by stories of World War I pilots, she decided she would learn to fly. Flight schools in the United States refused to admit her because she was Black and a woman. Undeterred, she studied French, raised money with support from Chicago's Black community, and traveled to France to pursue her dream.

There, she completed rigorous flight training and earned her pilot's license on June 15, 1921. Her accomplishment made headlines throughout Black America. Returning home, Coleman became a celebrated barnstorming pilot known as "Queen Bess," performing aerial stunts before crowds across the country.

Coleman used her growing fame to challenge discrimination. She refused to perform at events where Black audiences were segregated and envisioned opening a flight school for African Americans. Though her life was cut short in 1926, her determination and courage inspired generations of aviators, including the Tuskegee Airmen.

Today, her story remains a powerful reminder of what can be achieved through perseverance, vision, and an unwavering belief in possibility.

Explore Bessie Coleman's remarkable journey in ABHM's online exhibit, "Bessie Coleman: Breaking Barriers in the Sky," and discover how one woman's determination helped expand the horizons of American aviation. https://buff.ly/wtg5tik

More info:
https://buff.ly/sub11sL
https://buff.ly/fkHKLPK

Images:
1) Bessie Coleman's pilot license photo. June 15, 1921. National Air and Space Museum
2) Bessie Coleman's pilot license. Public Domain

06/13/2026

Thomas “Blind Tom” Wiggins was one of the most celebrated musicians of the nineteenth century, yet his life unfolded within the harsh realities of slavery and racial inequality. Born enslaved in Georgia on May 25, 1849, Wiggins was blind from birth and displayed extraordinary musical abilities while still a young child.

After he and his family were sold to James Neil Bethune of Columbus, Georgia, Wiggins became fascinated by the sounds around him. He could imitate birds, voices, machinery, and music with remarkable accuracy. By the age of four, he was reproducing melodies on the piano after hearing them only once. His talent quickly drew public attention, and he made his concert debut as a child.

Known professionally as “Blind Tom,” Wiggins toured extensively throughout the United States while still enslaved. Audiences were astonished by his ability to perform complex works from memory and to repeat pieces after a single hearing. He composed original music as well, including works such as Oliver Galop, Virginia Polka, and the famous Battle of Manassas.

During the presidency of James Buchanan, Wiggins became the first African American performer known to have appeared at the White House. His reputation continued to grow, and he eventually toured across North America and Europe. Music critics praised his abilities, and for decades he ranked among the nation’s most famous entertainers.

Despite his fame, Wiggins had little control over his own career. The wealth generated by his performances flowed largely to those who managed him. Even after the Civil War and emancipation, legal arrangements kept others in charge of his finances and professional life. His mother fought unsuccessfully to gain authority over her son and his earnings.

Wiggins gave his final public performance in 1905. He died on June 13, 1908, at the age of fifty-nine.

Today, Thomas “Blind Tom” Wiggins is remembered as a pioneering Black composer and pianist whose extraordinary gifts challenged assumptions about race, disability, and human potential. His life remains a powerful reminder of both artistic brilliance and the limits imposed by slavery and discrimination.

More info:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDAhHh3VPyE
https://klinkharthall.org/2021/04/thomas-wiggins/
https://www.whitehousehistory.org/blind-piano-prodigy-thomas-greene-bethune
https://www.abhmuseum.org/galleries/

Images:
1) Thomas Wiggins at age 10, 1859.
2) Thomas Wiggins, 1866.
3) Thomas Wiggins in a poster from his 1866 European Tour, Victoria & Albert Museum.
4) Thomas Wiggins, circa 1880.

06/12/2026

Few individuals did more to challenge segregation in Mississippi than Medgar Evers. As the NAACP's first field secretary in the state, he spent years organizing communities, encouraging voter registration, investigating racial violence, and pressing for equal access to education and public accommodations. His work placed him at the center of the struggle for civil rights in one of the nation's most fiercely segregated states.

Born in Decatur, Mississippi, in 1925, Evers served in the U.S. Army during World War II before returning home and becoming increasingly active in the fight for racial justice. He joined local civil rights efforts, worked with the NAACP, and helped build a statewide network dedicated to challenging Jim Crow laws. Evers also assisted efforts connected to the investigation of Emmett Till's 1955 murder and supported campaigns to desegregate schools and expand voting rights.

His growing visibility made him a target. Evers and his family received threats for years, yet he continued organizing across Mississippi. On the night of June 12, 1963, he returned home to Jackson after an NAACP meeting. As he walked from his car toward his house, he was shot in his driveway. He was 37 years old. The assassination occurred only hours after President John F. Kennedy delivered a nationally televised address calling civil rights a moral issue facing the nation.

The murder of Medgar Evers shocked the country and intensified demands for federal action on civil rights. His death became a powerful reminder of the dangers faced by those who challenged racial inequality in the South. The following year, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, legislation shaped by years of activism from people like Evers.

More than six decades later, Medgar Evers remains a symbol of courage, public service, and determination. His work helped transform Mississippi and contributed to a broader movement that reshaped American democracy. His legacy continues to inspire efforts to secure equal rights and justice for all.

More info:
https://www.fbi.gov/history/cases-and-criminals/medgar-evers
https://www.mec.cuny.edu/about/history/life-of-medgar-evers/
https://www.thenmusa.org/biographies/medgar-w-evers/
https://www.history.com/articles/7-things-you-should-know-about-medgar-evers

Images:
1) Medgar Evers, press photo. 1963
2) June 12, 1963: Civil rights activist Medgar Evers assassinated, Chicago Tribune.
https://x.com/chicagotribune/status/609433992685821952

06/11/2026

NEW IN ABHM'S VIRTUAL MUSEUM

The story of the Pullman porters reaches far beyond the railroads. Their efforts helped advance Black labor organizing, civil rights, cultural exchange, economic opportunity, and the Great Migration.

America's Black Holocaust Museum is pleased to present two new related exhibits:

🚂 The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters & the Civil Rights Movement
https://buff.ly/npWD1Rp

🚂 How the Pullman Porters Advanced Black Culture
https://buff.ly/a2DP0Rg

Together, these exhibits explore the lives of the men and women whose work on America's railroads helped transform Black communities and influence the course of American history.

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Image:
A sleeping car porter employed by the Pullman Company at Union Station in Chicago, Illinois. January 1943, Public domain.

06/10/2026

On June 10, 1915, hotel owner and businessman Albert Robinson died in Julian, California. His death marked the end of a remarkable journey that began in slavery and led to the creation of one of Southern California’s most enduring historic landmarks.

Albert Robinson was born into slavery in Missouri in 1845. Following the Civil War, he eventually settled in San Diego County. In 1886 he married Margaret Tull, a California native whose family was among the county’s early African American residents. As a wedding gift, the couple received land in Julian from Margaret’s parents.

The Robinsons built a successful business on that property. Soon after their marriage, they opened the Robinson Restaurant and Bakery. The establishment became known throughout the community, particularly for Margaret’s cooking. Its popularity helped the couple establish themselves as respected business owners during a period when opportunities for African Americans remained limited.

In 1897 the Robinsons replaced the restaurant with a larger enterprise, the Hotel Robinson. The new hotel included guest rooms, a dining room, kitchen, and parlor. It quickly became a gathering place for residents and travelers alike. Community events often extended to the hotel, where guests were welcomed with meals and hospitality that became widely known in the region.

The Robinson family’s achievement reflected a broader history of Black enterprise in the American West. African Americans helped build communities throughout California during the nineteenth century, creating businesses, purchasing property, and establishing institutions that strengthened local economies. The Hotel Robinson stood as an example of that tradition.

After Albert Robinson’s death, Margaret Robinson continued operating the hotel and restaurant for several years. Her leadership helped preserve the business and its reputation within the community. In 1921 she sold the property, which later became known as the Julian Hotel.

Today the building remains a prominent part of Julian’s historic district. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, it stands as a reminder of the Robinson family’s contributions to California history and of the role African American entrepreneurs played in shaping communities across the American West.

More info:
https://www.julianhotel.com/history
https://www.cbs8.com/article/news/history/unlikely-story-of-hotel-robinson/509-e2cc35c7-1040-4aed-938f-3f696032be5b
https://blackpast.org/african-american-history/hotel-robinson-1897-1921/
https://www.abhmuseum.org/galleries/

Images:
1) Albert & Margaret Robinson outside their bakery and restaurant property, circa 1887.
2) Hotel Robinson, 1900. Julian, CA.
3) Hotel Robinson not long after Margaret Robinson's passing, 1925. Julian, CA.
4) Julian Gold Rush Hotel, formerly the Robinson Hotel. Julian, CA. https://www.julianhotel.com/

America's Black Holocaust Museum

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Tuesday	10am - 5pm
Wednesday	10am - 5pm
Thursday	10am - 5pm
Friday	10am - 3pm
Saturday	10am - 3pm