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A Dialogue on Race with the Jim Crow Museum Director
By Tricia Hall
Sojourner’s Truth Reporter
The University of Toledo’s staff, students and faculty,
along with community residents, filled the McQuade Law
School auditorium on Thursday, April 11, for
transformational dialogue linking past racial practices with
current racial images as UT sponsored “Dialogue on Race: Jim
Crow and ‘Blackface’ in the 21st Century.”
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The dialogue featured renown author and presenter, David
Pilgrim, PhD, who serves as founder and director of the Jim
Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia at Ferris State University
in Big Rapids, Michigan.
Pilgrim opened the dialogue with inspirational quotes, a
visual presentation of museum artifacts, display topics, and
stories about securing his first piece. “I bought my first
piece at the age of 12 and broke it.” He later went on to
explain that at that age he wasn’t aware of its historical
significance but that he never broke another item
intentionally again.
The dialogue continued with discussions about creating the
museum when he donated 3,000 objects to Ferris State
University in the mid-1990s. One attendee inquired about
reactions from museum guests. He explained that Jim Crow
museum guests are escorted throughout the museum and asked a
simple question.
“When people look at an item in the museum, we ask them,
what do you see? Some people will remember memories of
stories told by grandparents or great-grandparents, while
someone else recalls reminiscences of slavery. There are
people who only talk about race in areas where their ideas
aren’t challenged. However, it is okay to push back when you
disagree with someone of a different race, but its not okay
to crush them verbally. When you crush someone, you can no
longer teach them, just like you can’t teach someone who has
lived through it,” said Pilgrim.
The museum’s name, Jim Crow, according to the presenter, was
selected because that is one word that describes racism.
Pilgrim explained the phrases origin to the audience. “See,
Jim Crow wasn’t a real person, but a series of actors who
used that stage name. The actors mocked black people by
exaggerating their facial features and demonstrating often
inappropriate behavior to obtain laughter. That’s when the
word Jim Crow became a part of American culture,” said
Pilgrim.
The dialogue was sponsored UT’s College of Arts, Letters
Africana Studite program, and Division of Student Affairs.
Pilgrim is the current vice president of Diversity and
Inclusion at Ferris State University, in addition to serving
as founder and current director of the Jim Crow Museum also
located on the campus. The museum holds 12,000 racist
artifacts.
Pilgram has authored several books including,
Watermelons, Nooses, and Straight Razors, and
Understanding Jim Crow: Using Racist Memorabilia to Teach
Tolerance and Promote Social Justice. He also produced a
documentary, “Jim Crow’s Museum;” appeared in the PBS
series, “The African American: Many Rivers to Cross” and
served as a consultant to the UPN network sitcom, “All of
Us.”
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