The African American Museum of Dallas, celebrating its 50th anniversary this November, has consistently acquired and displayed important ephemera that tell the story of Black Americans. The museum has proven time and again that any ephemera important to telling the story of Black Americans was fair game to be acquired and displayed within its walls at Fair Park, no matter how rare.
The African American Museum in Dallas, Texas.
The Visionary Founder: Harry Robinson Jr.
Harry Robinson Jr., the museum’s founding director, has been the sole executive director since he founded the institution in Dallas in 1974 at the since-shuttered Bishop College, where he also ran the library. As of 2012 Robinson had served as the museum’s only director and chief executive officer. Robinson speaks confidently, has an opinion on seemingly everything, and knows how to tell a story. He has a contrarian streak and a charming ego.
The original name of the museum was the Southwest Research Center and Museum of African-American Life and Culture. Born in New Orleans, Louisiana, Robinson grew up in rural Louisiana and attended and earned his bachelor’s degree from Southern University in Baton Rouge. He earned his graduate degrees from Atlanta University and the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana.
Early Years and Growth
In 1974 the Dallas African American Museum was founded on the campus of Bishop College. After its founding, the museum developed and sponsored programs and activities that highlighted its mission. It sponsored African and African-American art exhibitions, a lecture series named in honor of Bishop College’s first African-American president Joseph J. Rhoads, and a biennial Texas women’s conference that was eventually named for Dallas journalist and local historian Dickie Foster.
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The museum opened in a small 30’ x 30’room on the second floor of Bishop College’s Zale Library, for which Robinson also served as the chief librarian. Although Robinson eventually moved the museum to the basement of the Zale Library which had limited exhibition space, it exhibited the works of local African-American artists, sponsored a variety of programs for youth and adults, and served as a centerpiece for Bishop College’s community outreach efforts and programs. After its opening, the museum received major donations of African art from Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Marcus, Mr. and Mrs. George Perutz, and the Meadows Foundation.
In 1979 the museum shortened its name to the Museum of African-American Life and Culture, and it became independent of Bishop College-a separation forced by Bishop College’s ongoing financial crisis. The museum created an independent, nonprofit governance organization called the Foundation of African-American Art. Although the museum separated from Bishop College, it was still housed on its campus in the Zale Library.
The institution has had multiple homes, because of both Bishop’s financial instability and a failed capital campaign. In an effort to increase its exhibition space and program facilities, in 1981 the museum embarked on a capital campaign to renovate a chapel on the Bishop College campus. The campaign was not successful.
Despite a series of community programs designed to raise funds, a grant from the National Institute of Museum Services, and a challenge grant of $75,000 from the Meadows Foundation, the museum raised only $325,000. But it needed $800,000 to begin the renovation project.
Move to Fair Park
Bishop College declared bankruptcy in 1988, and the museum moved its offices to Dallas Fair Park. Its temporary location was in the former Hall of Religion. By using offsite galleries and exhibition sites and auditoriums in the city, such as the Dallas Public Library, the Hall of State, El Centro College, and the Trammell Crow Center, the museum continued to sponsor a plethora of exhibitions and educational and community outreach programs.
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After a successful second capital campaign, along with money allocated following a bond election, the museum finally broke ground in 1989 and opened in 1993 in the cross-shaped building in Fair Park, near Grand Avenue. During the year of its fifteenth anniversary the museum also celebrated another major milestone-on November 4, 1989, Robinson, the museum’s board of directors, and a host of dignitaries, including Dallas mayor Annette Strauss, broke ground in Fair Park for the museum’s new building.
In 1985, even before the closing of Bishop College, Robinson had begun an effort to build a new building for the museum in Fair Park. After discussions with Harry Parker, the director of the Dallas Museum of Art, the two of them negotiated with the Dallas Park Board, the Friends of Fair Park Association, and other stakeholders to move the museum to Fair Park.
The negotiations included providing partial funding for the museum’s new building from a 1985 city bond issue to upgrade Fair Park and other arts institutions in the city. The bond issue passed, and the museum received $1.2 million to build a new $3 million building in Fair Park. After four years of fund raising, including major donations and contributions from the Meadows Foundation, NationsBank, Exxon, and over 50,000 individual donors, the museum broke ground for its new building in 1989.
But due to the rising costs for construction which eventually amounted to more than $4.6 million, the museum’s 38,000-square foot building did not open until November 13, 1993.
The opening of the new building provided Robinson and the museum staff a variety of new opportunities for exhibitions and programs. To acknowledge and emphasize the new phase in the museum’s history, the board of directors shortened its name to the “African American Museum.” The new building provided space for the museum’s most important archival and art collections and a venue to open them for viewing by the public and use by scholars.
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Collections and Exhibitions
The Museum is the only one of its kind in the Southwestern United States devoted to the preservation and display of African American artistic, cultural and historical materials. The Museum's operators say they strive to present a meaningful experience to children and adults who do not normally visit art museums. The museum houses a rich heritage of American art and history in four vaulted galleries that are augmented by a research library. The Museum's permanent collections include African art; African American art; magazine, historical, political, and community archives.
The current museum building occupies virtually the same site as the Texas Centennial Exposition's Hall of Negro Life. It boasts a permanent collection that consists of the works of such highly regarded African American artists as Romare Bearden, Jacob Lawrence, Larry D. Alexander, John T. "Dallas and Fort Worth:A Pictorial Celebration" by Michael W.
The museum has specialized in collecting and exhibiting African-American folk art. It houses and exhibits a 200-piece collection of folk art named for former Dallas Park board chair Billy Allen (the Billy R. Allen Folk Art Collection). Folk artists accounted for the museum’s earliest acquisitions in the 1970s, which remain the museum’s largest collections.
Black folk art is the subject of a major exhibition about once a decade. Robinson rightfully doesn’t like the term “self-taught.” It implies someone wasn’t versed in anything at all. The artisans were trained as basket weavers, silversmiths, and potters who told the story of Black life through their work.
“They’re painting from life experience wherever they are,” he says, “and typically use religious symbols.” One, Sister Gertrude Morgan, thought she was a religious figure herself. “She thought she was married to Jesus,” Robinson says.
In 1976 the museum inaugurated the annual Southwest Black Art Competition and Exhibition, later renamed the Carroll Harris Simms National Black Art Competition and Exhibition in honor of the co-founder of the Department of Visual and Performing Arts at Texas Southern University in Houston. Local corporations donated money to fund the acquisitions.
Some of its major exhibitions included Black Presence in Dallas: A History of Black Political Activism in Dallas County, 1936-1986 (1987); Sacred Symbols: Animals of Pharaoh’s Egypt (1989); and Juneteenth: 125 Years Later (1990). Its programs included the biennial A. Maceo Smith Brunch, the annual Texas Black Invitational Rodeo, the Southwest Black Art Exhibition, community African-American history courses, summer African-American history camps, an annual African-American Heritage Bowl for high school and middle school students, and an African-American history fair.
During its fifteenth anniversary in 1989-90, the museum sponsored the first statewide African-American History in Texas conference, the Arco Lectures series, and a concert by the Boys Choir of Harlem.
Inside the African American Museum of Dallas.
Key Collections
The museum also has the following major collections: the Sepia Magazine Photograph Collection, the Dallas County Black Political Archives, the Bishop College Archives, the Texas Black Women’s History Archives, the Freedman’s Cemetery Collection, and the A. Maceo Smith Collection. It is the official repository for “Black Texana” for the state of Texas, and it houses the Texas Black Sports Hall of Fame. African American Museum Archives, Dallas.
As the museum’s longest running exhibit, “Facing the Rising Sun: Freedman’s Cemetery” is a representation of the Dallas community once known as “Freedman’s Town” formed by African Americans in the post-Civil War era. Elements of Freedman’s Town, now known as Uptown Dallas, are on display in the museum’s notable collection of photographs, documents, archives and interactive video presentations.
Scattered through the museum are names of prominent local Black leaders. The solarium is named for former Rep. Helen Giddings. They hold the archives of the original Dallas Express, when it was a Black newspaper, and the Juanita Craft Civil Rights House Collection. But it’s also home to the Texas Black Sports Hall of Fame and the archives of Sepia magazine, which started in Fort Worth.
Random ephemera is the core of any regional museum. They’re repositories for local archives, family heirlooms, and photographs. In his mind, he’s created an unrivaled encyclopedic museum with a vast collection that documents the Black experience by way of textiles, furniture, and baskets, which to more traditional curators may see little use to save or display.
Dave the Potter: A Prized Acquisition
A jug tells the story of the African American Museum of Dallas. Harry Robinson Jr., the museum’s founding director, always wanted a piece made by David Drake. This artist was better known as Dave the Potter, the 19th century Black man was believed to be the first enslaved potter. “Before I die and go to Jesus I wanted a Dave the Potter,” Robinson says. When he found a collector who had one but refused to sell, “I wouldn’t let him out of my office until I got it.”
Indeed, Robinson recounted this story while sitting proudly next to 5 Gallon Jug in the Sam and Ruth Bussey Art Gallery, a room the size of a small apartment. It’s enlivened by a mix of furniture, décor, and folk art made by Black people. To understand why Dave the Potter is a big deal to Robinson, consider this: The 19th-century potter was the first known enslaved potter and also a poet. He was a rebel, too, in both practice and personality.
The South Carolinian inscribed his pots and jugs, which was rare because it was illegal. While he made thousands of pots and jugs during his life, the National Gallery of Art estimates that only 270 remain. Robinson did not disclose how much the museum paid for this one. But one recently sold for $1.6 million in a 2021 auction. The buyer was The Crystal Bridges Museum of Art in Bentonville, Arkansas, founded by the Walmart heiress Alice Walton. Another is currently on display at the Dallas Museum of Art in the performative show When You See Me: Visibility in Contemporary Art/History.
Every acquisition is special and methodical to Robinson, which makes sense for a librarian and archivist, a band of highly organized and diligent professional hoarders. Alongside Dave the Potter’s jug is a spoon by silversmith Peter Bentzson, which is one of only 10 known spoons and 20 flatware pieces in existence, according to the Smithsonian. There’s also a folding cabinet bed by Sarah Goode, who in 1885 became the third Black woman to receive a patent. (“People say she’s the first,” Robinson says. “She’s not.” The first two were Judy Reed and Miariam Benjamin.)
| Artist | Object | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| David Drake (Dave the Potter) | 5 Gallon Jug | 19th-century enslaved potter and poet; inscribed his pots, which was rare and illegal. |
| Peter Bentzson | Spoon | Silversmith; one of only 10 known spoons and 20 flatware pieces in existence. |
| Sarah Goode | Folding Cabinet Bed | Third Black woman to receive a patent in 1885. |
They are three items of the 350 artworks and artifacts in the permanent collection and 60 archives spanning the 18th century to the present. But Dave the Potter is also a big deal because Robinson knew that Dave the Potter was important, and that meant the museum needed one of his works so everyone else could know about Dave the Potter, too.
Dave the Potter | South Carolina Hall of Fame
So, while it has the same collection and character as any regional museum, Robinson wanted it to be the grandest Black history museum, a goal befitting of go-big Dallas. Granted, that goal was declared before the National Museum of African American History and Culture opened in 2016 in Washington, D.C. Robinson of course attended the opening, was impressed, and toured the White House. He realized his museum’s collection complements the larger one in the nation’s capital.
He’s not done collecting. He mentioned the gaps in the collection. He wants sculptures by Bill Edmonson and paintings by Horace Pippin, among others. He wants to expand the design collection. He wants to curate more exhibitions.
Looking for some fun, family-friendly activities here in Dallas? Known throughout Texas as a National Historic Landmark, Fair Park contains a rich history and offers a one-of-a-kind cultural experience. With 277 acres featuring a series of well-preserved Art Deco structures, visitors can find a wide variety of museums and cultural centers located throughout the park. First stop - the African American Museum of Dallas.
The African American Museum of Dallas is an American art museum located at 3536 Grand Avenue in Fair Park, Dallas, Texas. Admission to the museum is free. A docent-guided tour is available for $3 for adults and $1 for students. A special thanks to all of the museum staff, including Dr. Harry Robinson, Jr.
