Museum on wheels brings past to the present

Zakyra Colvin

Students took a walk through time starting from the 1860’s at the Sankofa African-American Museum on Wheels on Thursday.

Angela Jennings, owner and curator of the museum, said she was inspired to start this museum because of the lack of knowledge this generation has about African-American history.

“My nephew was a straight ‘A’ student and didn’t know anything about himself,” Jennings said.

The museum included books, pictures and several forms of art that showed the brutality of slaveholders; how some slaves were treated and how gruesome it was. There were also model tools there that were used on slaves including “the slaveholder’s whip.”

“I like the arrangement, how it starts from past and works its way to the present,” Solomon Crawford, junior biology major said. “I liked the visuals too.  Being in this environment it shows that this is real, this actually happened.”

The Museum gave students a look into African- American past and its present, and how African-Americans and the African culture have progressed over time. Books and excerpts from African-American abolitionists were included in the museum exhibit as well.

“What I want students to get from this museum,” Jennings said, “is the true essence of African and African-American diaspora, and know the contributions that African-Americans have made to this country.”