The Museum of Black Women and Girls: What It Held and What It Did
Before the doors opened, Kellie Todd Griffin described what she hoped the museum would become.
“I wanted it to become a love letter to Black women whose courage, sacrifice, and brilliance created the path we walk today. I wanted every visitor to experience pride, joy, and a deeper understanding of the extraordinary legacy that surrounds us. More than an exhibit, I wanted it to be a place where Black women and girls feel seen, celebrated, and reminded that they have always been architects of history.”
Kellie Todd Griffin, President and CEO
That love letter, the Museum of Black Women and Girls: The Field of Beauty and Brilliance, opened to the public on June 22 at the A C Bilbrew Library Black Resource Center in Los Angeles.
For the next three months, the museum filled the library with the names, faces and stories of more than 300 Black women and girls.
People came throughout the summer. Some came for the museum. Some came for a book club conversation. Some sat down to record their own stories. Some discovered a woman on the wall they had never heard of before.
By the time the museum closed on September 30, approximately 600 to 700 people had visited.
Admission was free from beginning to end.
More Than 300 Black Women and Girls on the Walls
There was a lot to take in.
The exhibit moved across generations and fields, with Black women represented in history, culture, public service, sports and the arts.
Biddy Mason was there, a woman born into slavery who became a landowner and an important figure in early Los Angeles. Dr. Patricia Bath was there, the physician and inventor whose work changed ophthalmology. Yvonne Brathwaite Burke was there, a groundbreaking California legislator and member of Congress. Kitty Black Perkins was there, whose work as a designer helped change the way Black girls were represented through one of the most recognizable toys in the world.
Maxine Waters and Kamala Harris were there too.
For every name people recognized, there were others waiting to be discovered.
Todd Griffin anticipated that before the museum opened.
“Some visitors will recognize familiar names, but many will discover women whose contributions have too often gone untold. My hope is that people leave overwhelmed not by the size of the exhibit, but by the magnitude of Black women’s impact.”Kellie Todd Griffin
The Stories Continued Around the Table
The museum gave people plenty to look at, but some of the best moments happened when people sat down together.
Throughout the summer, Where The Stories Continue brought books by Black women into conversation with the community.
On July 25, Paint & Chat centered Terry McMillan’s It’s Not All Downhill From Here.
On August 22, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and author Anna Malaika Tubbs joined Kellie Todd Griffin for a conversation inspired by Tubbs’ The Three Mothers.
On August 29, artist and author Synthia SAINT JAMES joined the series for My Multicultural World, Vol. 2.
The final gathering came on September 19. Assemblymember Tina McKinnor joined Todd Griffin for a fireside chat on 107 Days by former Vice President Kamala Harris, opening a conversation about campaigning, public service and navigating political leadership as a Black woman.
Across those four gatherings, 284 people attended.
The books brought people into the room, but the goal was for the reading and conversation to continue after they left.
As Carina Crump explained during the series, “the heart of the series is encouraging people to read, get a library card, and continue the conversation beyond the exhibit.”
Black Women Added Their Own Stories
The women on the museum walls represented generations of history. The Oral History Project created room for Black women living that history now.
Throughout the summer, Black Californians recorded their own experiences in their own words. In-person recordings took place on opening day and select Saturdays during the museum run.
Someone could walk through the museum, learn about women who came before her and then sit down and put her own life into the record.
That is something we are especially proud of.
Black women across California are still making this history, in families, neighborhoods, workplaces, public institutions and communities every day. The Oral History Project recorded it as it happens.
Those voices became part of a living archive of Black California.
In-person recording ended when the museum closed on September 30.
What We Did This Summer
More than 300 Black women and girls represented in the museum
Approximately 600 to 700 visitors during the three-month run
284 attendees across four Where The Stories Continue gatherings
Free admission every day the museum was open
Those numbers show who came and what they came for: Black women’s history presented with care, Black women’s books at the center of community conversation, and Black women documenting their own lives for the record.
“Rooms Like This Refill Me.”
That is what Tiffany H. told us after participating in Where The Stories Continue.
Her words stayed with us.
“Thank you for creating such a wonderful experience and for the meaningful imprint this event had on them.”Tina A.
We heard pride throughout the summer. We saw people reading panels closely, talking with one another, bringing family members into the space and returning for conversations.
There was pride in seeing women we knew.
There was pride in learning the names of women we should have known.
And there was pride in knowing that all of it was here, in Los Angeles County, open to anyone who wanted to walk through the doors.
A C Bilbrew Was the Right Home
The A C Bilbrew Library Black Resource Center gave the museum a home for the summer. This was a museum built around history and storytelling, housed inside a Black Resource Center where people could keep reading and learning after they left the exhibit.
It also gave Where The Stories Continue a natural home. People came to discuss books and left encouraged to get a library card, keep reading and come back.
We are grateful to the A C Bilbrew Library Black Resource Center for making room for this work and welcoming the community into it.
What We Want Black Girls to See
Before the museum opened, Todd Griffin shared another reason for building it.
“We have always believed that you cannot become what you cannot see, and this exhibit ensures that generations of Black women and girls will see limitless possibilities staring back at them.”
Kellie Todd Griffin
For one summer in Los Angeles, more than 300 Black women and girls stared back.
Some were household names. Some deserved to be better known. Some made history generations ago. Others are still making it.
And throughout the summer, more Black women added their own voices to that history.
We are proud of what the museum held, and of the hundreds of people who spent part of their summer here reading, listening, talking and learning about Black women.
The museum closed September 30. The Oral History Project is still open online through October 31.
Add Your Story by Oct. 31
Add your voice to the living archive of Black California.
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