MULTICULTURAL WISCONSIN:
Our Museums Need A Museum
When it comes to unique and unusual museums, no other place compares to the Badger state’s originality. Perhaps Wisconsin’s best-kept secret is the varied cultural offerings available to multicultural visitors. The state’s urban centers feature many museums of particular interest to African Americans.
DIVERSITY TAKES FLIGHT IN OSHKOSH :
The AirVenture Museum
Every summer, the annual EAA AirVenture Fly-in summons all sorts of imaginative aviators and experimental aircraft — and many of them just happen to be men and women of color. As the EAA communications director says, “The airplane does not care what color you are. It’s only looking for a quality pilot.”
African American pilot, Neal Loving’s pioneering aviation efforts (among others) are featured at Wisconsin’s EAA AirVenture Museum. Loving not only built his own plane, but he also founded the first all black civil air patrol unit and the first integrated flight school in the Midwest – all this despite loosing both legs in a glider accident.
Pullman Porters Exhibit at the National Railroad Museum
A must-see at the National Railroad Museum is Pullman Porters: From Service to Civil Rights, which tells the compelling story of the men who worked American’s rail lines for nearly 100 years. The exhibit weaves the history of the railroads with the labor and civil rights movements of the 20th century and features a restored 1920s Pullman sleeper car.
THE BATTLE BETWEEN NORTH AND SOUTH COMES TO KENOSHA:
The Civil War Museum
Ida B. Wells, the daughter of slaves who became a prominent civil rights activist, is one of the people portrayed by the Civil War Museum’s Theatre Program. USA Today recently named the Kenosha museum one of the top ten places in the country to see the evolution of equality.
