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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.”
 

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.”


 

 

   
   


Copyright © 2019 by [The Sojourner's Truth]. All rights reserved.
Revised: 04/18/19 11:00:39 -0400.


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