The Curiosity to Learn
As racialized minorities, we do not see our histories taught in formal education. Therefore, we need to educate ourselves with truthful and comprehensive information. As you plan your next (family) vacation, consider building in a couple of these stops to learn about ourselves and each other.
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Listed by US region:
THE WEST
Northern California:
Angel Island Immigration Center
The Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation aims to raise awareness of the experience of Immigration into America through the Pacific. Visitors can find the rich stories and personal journeys of thousands of immigrants as well as education initiatives and public programs. After a short ferry ride and walk, visitors can explore the island and take a free tour of the museum.
Asian Art Museum
The Asian Art Museum aims to celebrate, preserve, and promote Asian and Asian American art and cultures for local and global audiences. Today the museum holds over 18,000 pieces of Asian art ranging from paintings to ancient artifacts and contemporary video installations. Aside from having many exhibits the museum also hosts community events like community singing and talks and lectures about specific artists.
African American Art and Culture Complex
The AAACC is one of the premier Black arts and cultural institutions in the Bay Area and they are dedicated to providing a wide variety of art and cultural programming for youth, adults and families, including visual, digital, and performance. Visitors can attend seminars and local community events such as yoga.
China Historical Society of America
The CHSA was founded in 1963 in order to collect, preserve, and illuminate the history of Chinese in America. It serves as a research and learning building where visitors can find tours of the local Chinatown as well as the museum itself. The museum itself houses numerous exhibits ranging from historical photos of Chinese Americans to art and clothing from Chinese culture.
The Black Panther Mini-Museum
Opened on Juneteenth of 2021, the Mini Museum is a 1000 sq.ft. museum on the first floor of a private home that honors the feats and importance of women in the Black Panther Party. Here visitors can learn about influential women like Christina May, the more than 60 programs created by the Black Panthers, and the women who helped organize and build the foundation of the party.
Oakland Asian Cultural Center
The center was created to recognize the artistic and cultural force of the local Chinatown community. Since its establishment the center has worked to build vibrant communities through Asian and Pacific Islander arts and cultural programs. Visitors can also attend classes ranging from the arts and languages to fitness.
African American Museum and Library at Oakland
This library boasts an extensive collection of 12,000 volumes by or about African Americans. There are books on religion, the military, Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcom X, and the Black Panther Party. They also host events where visitors may be able to meet notable authors or attend community meetings. Visitors can also take a guided tour of the museum and look through the museum's archives.
Southern California:
Chinese American Museum
The Chinese American Museum is housed in the oldest and last surviving structure of Los Angeles’ original Chinatown. The museum is Southern California’s first and only museum dedicated to sharing the history of the Chinese American experience in Los Angeles. In its permanent collections are records of Chinese American communities in L.A., a general store and herb shop, and an exhibit dedicated to the journey Chinese immigrants took to get to Los Angeles.
Norton Simon Museum
This museum houses a world-renowned collection of art from South and Southeast Asia that includes examples of the rich sculptural and painting traditions that developed in this region over the course of more than 2,000 years. This museum focuses on showing the art and sculptures of many South Asian countries including Thailand and Indonesia, however, it has a large focus on sculptures from the Indian subcontinent.
Washington:
Name of state:
TEXAS & THE SOUTHWEST
Texas:
Austin Museum Partnership
This collection of museums and cultural centers provide visitors with plenty of sources of information on the local community and history, including the Art Galleries at Black Studies which focuses on celebrating the contemporary and historic narrative of Africa and the African Diaspora.
Asian American Resource Center
The Asian American Resource Center’s mission is to create a space of belonging and healing for Asian American communities in Austin and beyond. They organize cultural & educational events, health wellness programs, and curate art and historical exhibitions.
Arizona:
New Mexico:
THE PLAINS STATES
Name of state:
THE MIDWEST
Illinois:
South Asia Institute
The institute aims to cultivate the art and culture of South Asia and its diaspora. Past exhibits have featured prominent South Asian artists from the 1920s to the 1980s as well as historical artifacts from the Sindhu Watershed. The institute also hosts programs where attendees can celebrate classical Indian music as well as listen to lectures about South Asian art and the immigrant experience.
THE NORTHEAST
Massachusetts:
Museum of Fine Arts Boston
The MFA Boston houses one of the largest collections of Japanese art and has a focus in the Meiji-era art and visual culture. Aside from Japanese art, the museum has a collection of Korean art which ranges from metal work to paintings of Buddha. They also house South Asian art and sculptures from the Himalayan region as well as the Indus Valley. Lastly they house one of the most significant collections of Vietnamese ceramics in the US.
New York:
The Rubin Museum of Art
This museum offers numerous exhibitions and programs that focus on Asia’s diverse cultures, regions, and narratives. The museum is also invested in Project Himalayan Art, a 3-part initiative that seeks to encourage the incorporation of Himalayan, Tibetan, and Inner Asian art and cultures into humanities and liberal arts teaching curricula on Asia in higher education.
Virginia:
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
The VMFA is one of the largest art museums in North America and its permanent collection consists of art from around the world. This includes African, African American, East Asian, and South Asian art. Audio tours, educational programs for all ages, and an extensive library are all available as well.
District of Columbia:
Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture
The NMAAHC is the only national museum devoted exclusively to the documentation of African American life, history, and culture. Visitors can take guided tours on current exhibits focused on the work of Harriet Tubman and other important figures or locations in African American history. Aside from exhibits, the museum also holds a large collection of clothing, art, music, and photographs. The NMAAHC has multilingual maps (Chinese, French, Spaish) to guide your visit, and a mobile app.
THE SOUTH
Alabama:
The Legacy Sites
There are three sites in Montgomery which acknowledge the past racial terrorism carried out by white society and advocate for social justice, especially for people now caught in the direct legacy of slavery, the U.S. prison system.
- the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, (informally known as the “National Lynching Memorial”) is a deeply-moving monument to commemorate the Black victims of lynching in the United States.
- The Legacy Museum offers high-tech interactive exhibits and world-class artwork to tell the story of slavery in the United States.
- Freedom Monument Sculpture Park is a 17-acre site along the Alabama River upon which tens of thousands of enslaved people were trafficked through Montgomery. The park celebrates their courage and resilience with breathtaking art and original artifacts related to the lives of enslaved people.
Rosa Parks Museum
This museum is an active memorial to the life of civil rights icon Rosa Parks and the lessons of the Montgomery Bus Boycott that brought racial integration to transportation and international attention to the Civil Rights movement. Visitors can find artifacts like the original fingerprint arrest record of Rosa Parks, original works of art from the 1950s, court documents, and much more.
Freedom Rides Museum
The Freedom Rides Museum is located in the building which was until 1995 Montgomery's Greyhound Bus Station. It was the site of a violent attack on participants in the 1961 Freedom Ride during the Civil Rights Movement, and the bus station has been restored to how it looked in 1961.
Civil Rights Memorial Center
The CRMC is a memorial designed by Maya Lin, located just around the corner from the historic church where Martin Luther King Jr. served as pastor. Inscribed on a granite fountain are the names of 41 martyrs killed during the southern Civil Rights Movement. The memorial is sponsored by the Southern Poverty Law Center, a human rights organization that also speaks out against Anti-Asian hate.
Brown Chapel AME Church
Brown Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church was the first AME church in Alabama, and served as the site of preparations for the civil rights March to Montgomery on March 7, 1965. That peaceful protest was attacked by police officers in a day that became known as “Bloody Sunday.” The church is also where injured marchers sought refuge.
Edmund Pettus Bridge
The Edmund Pettus Bridge carries US Route 80 across the Alabama River in Selma. It is named after Edmund Pettus, a former Confederate general, U.S. senator, and leader in Alabama’s Ku Klux Klan. In 1965, police stopped and clubbed the protestors of a peaceful march for Black voting rights. The extent of this brutal and unprovoked attack was televised all over the nation, and helped the public to realize the system under which African Americans were living.
Birmingham Civil Rights Institute
BCRI is a cultural and educational research center that promotes a comprehensive understanding of the significance of civil rights developments in Birmingham. Visitors can explore exhibits on subjects like the 50s-era movement churches in Birmingham, the 1990s Huntsville Alabama hate crime, and view objects & texts that were essential to the struggle for human rights.
Kelly Ingram Park
Kelly Ingram Park, formerly West Park, is a 4-acre park that contains emotionally powerful sculptures depicting the civil rights struggle in Birmingham. The park served as an assembly spot for activities of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and other groups in the movement.
Sixteenth Street Baptist Church
This beautiful orange-brick church continues to serve the congregation in Birmingham. During the Civil Rights Movement it was often the gathering place for mass-meetings and rallies, and in 1963, the Ku Klux Klan reacted by setting off a bomb that damaged the church, injured 20 people, and killed four schoolgirls attending Sunday School. Today there is a marker outside to honor these young martyrs.
Georgia:
The Nat’l Center for Civil & Human Rights (museum)
The National Center for Civil and Human Rights is a museum and a human rights organization. Their iconic exhibitions feature the papers and artifacts of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the history of the U.S. civil rights movement, and stories from the struggle for human rights around the world today. Weekend tours will take you on a journey through time experiencing the Civil Rights Movement of the South in a chronology from the early 1950s to the end of the 1960s.
Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site
The Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park covers about 35 acres and includes several sites in Atlanta related to the life and work of MLK Jr. — who grew up in Atlanta and emerged here as a national leader for civil rights.
Tennessee:
National Museum of African American Music
This is the only museum dedicated to preserving and celebrating the many music genres created, influenced, and inspired by African Americans. Visitors can learn about the evolution of African American music traditions, the history and influence of religious music, the importance of the Blues, and the evolution of hip-hop.
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Do you know another a place that should be listed? Please share their information with us: