The Tubman African American Museum celebrates African American culture, heritage, history, and art. The two-story museum was founded in 1981 and relocated to a larger venue in the city’s museum district on May 16, 2015, becoming the largest museum of its kind in the southeast.
The founder, Rev. Richard Keil, admired Harriet Tubman’s work and decided to name the museum in her honor. Rev. Keil credited the museum’s establishment to many people; among them are his wife Margaret, high school principal Gloria Washington, Mercer University professor Bobby Jones, contractor and county commissioner Albert Billingslea, and director of the Ruth Hartley Mosley Center Maureen Walker.
One of the galleries presents an exhibition about Tubman’s life, from her years as an enslaved person to escaping slavery and becoming a brave conductor on the Underground Railroad known as the Black Moses, a fearless soldier in the Union Army during the civil war and a suffragist and activist till her last years.
Also on the museum are permanent and rotating exhibitions of local and international African American artists presenting contemporary and folk art, I Dream a World: Portraits of Black Women Who Changed America, Sankofa: A Century of African American Expression in the Decorative Arts, a sculpture gallery and the mural From Africa to America.
Other galleries present cultural and historical artifacts relating to African Americans and local and national African American leaders.
The museum hosts special programs, art classes, concerts, performances, lectures, and many more.
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