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Show PY TheSalt Lake Tribune TRAVEL Sunday April 11 H3 You Horrors and Triumphsof Black History, Immortalized in Wax BY RANDY KRAFT THE ALLENTOWN MORNINGCALL THE ALLENTOWN MORNING BALTIMORE — Just before one of their teachers, gave them a couple of warnings. ymore. ‘Theydo not happen “Another thing. You may see clothes on. It is completely normal. Everyone has a body Inside the museum, Joanne Martin, its co-founder and execu: tive director, asked the children from Great Commission Christian um.” The museum is a hall of fame of nearly 135 male and female heroes immortalized in wax. The men range from Hannibal to Frederick Douglass to Malcolm X to Colin Powell. The women range t from Hatshepsu (“first woman in recorded history to preside over a nation”) to Sojourner Truth to Rosa Parks to Shirley Chisholm. Teaching black historyto black mission of the museum, which was founded by Martin and her husband “two products of the '60s. t Shesaid all the energy genera ed by the black consciousness movement of the 1960s “just fiz: zled in a generation. WesloganElmer, ized a lot, but we didn’t build institutions. The Martins, both college teachers, started the museum af- ter realizing if they didn't do , every generation something would have to start from scratch Joanne Martin said too many people are unaware of the achievements of blacks, except for those of athletes and musicians. “We needed to showthere was a wide range of things they had done Martin stressed that thechil. dren's ancestors were coura “They might want you to know howvery brave they were. They did somethingre. markable. is an additional For moreinformation, cal the museum at (410) 5 3404. Orwrite Great Black Wax Museum, 1601-03 East North Ave., Baltimore, Md 21213-1409. Computer user can check the museum's Wet site at www.gbiw.org on the Internet $1 They lived through that experience. That's why you're here. Visiting America’s first black history wax museum is a remind parts as souvenirs was a popula lion. A tortured, naked woman has part of the lynching ritual. Jé displayeyeballs, ears, heart her hands chainedtotheceiling Allentown Morning Call Figures of children in chains are among the sights at the Great Blacks in Wax Museumin Baltimore. MH Moresights of Baltimore HB er that muchof history is brutal Some scenes in the Great Blacks in Wax Museumare much gorier than any carnival side. show’s chamber of horrors. Some of it may betoo graphic — including jars containing body parts prized by lynchers — and someof it may not answer enough ques. all: a bearded white man with bloody hands appears to be re moving a black baby from the torncorpseofits lynched, burned and mutilated mother Because the scenes areso terri ble, I wonderedif young children going through the 16-year-old museumwill come away with a newlylearned fear of white men or even a hatredofthemevenif they are kept away fromthegrue- tions But the museumis impor: becauseit focuses on aspect some lynchingscenes in the base overlookedor unknown. Unfortunately, the atrocities committing such crimes against ment history that otherwise arelargely depicted overwhelm the muse- um’s less dramatic central theme. which is to immortalize accom- plishmentsof blacks. Soonafterentering, visitors see a white man branding a black slaveontheshoulder. Nearby two more white men, slaveshipsail ors, are force-feeding a captured African gruel. moreslaves, Near them two man and a boy overpower awhite sailor by wrap- ping theirchains aroundhis neck was uncomfortablehaving the same skin color asthe figures humanity. I told myself I am no morekin to those white torturers thanI amto their black victims Joanne Martin hopes children who visit the museumwill come away only with a positive mes- sage: “There are times when hu man beings have notbeenthebest they could be. Human beings shouldnot treat eachother like that. We're all in this together and we're going to make this worlda better place only if wepull to gether as human beings. Great Blacks in Wax is a very significant Baltimoreattraction. said Nancy Hinds, communica. tions director at the Baltimore Area Convention andVisitors As- sociation. She said the musew will be an integral part of blac heritage tours and programs be- ing developedto attract the “very lucrative” black travel market Our visitors went from 42,000 in 1988 to 175,000in 19: said Martin. “We'venot yet compiled the figures for 1998, but I’m sure we topped 200,000." Martinsaid the museumdoesn’t get as many white visitors as she'd like, but the numbers are grow ing. Shesaid about 30 percent of visiting schoolchildren are white The museum's replica slave ship holdis dark andscary, with blinkinglanterns. \ decapitated head is inside the hold. A sign explains that one of male and female genitalia. (Mar Boys in chains arein one compart ment, men in another. Visitors learn the stench of slave ships could be smelled for miles andthat sharks followedthe tin said noneof the parts in tt jars arereal.) Teachers from Great Commis sion Christian take their first-graders into the lynching room. “The slave ship ships. A shark is attacking a sub. merged black person in bloody water” replica was off the bow of the ship hard enough,” coughing, lapping water and — as they leave — spine-chilling whispers of “Remember! The lynching room is much moreexplicit than the slaveship There arerotting and burned immortalized — including George Washington Carver, torsos, heads with eyeballs hang. ing out, a man who was lynched andcastrated, and the baby com bal on anelephant. He armywith elephants across the Alps to defeat a muchlarger Ro ing out of the woman One signclaims: “Lynching was a national pastime, as popular as man army. I learned that bellion in Santo Domingo, making what is nowHaiti the first free black republic in the western hemisphere. And I learned that best, including children, casually stand around many corpses Asignexplainsthat taking body Madam C.J. Walker was the first black millionairebusinesswoman the first things boarding captives saw was the “rotten, bleeding head of oneof their shipmates. decapitated to discourage rebel with black women. It is about rape aboardslaveships On the top floor, two small black childrenare showncarrying a sign stating: “We are not afraid.’ Behind them is a blue eyed white man, holding a noose and wearing a Ku Klux Klan hood. In the basement is the worst of pasar Travel 2906 S. State, Ste 102, SLC 466-8811 888-682 RATES,THEN CHECK IN AND SAVE! 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No video or digi eras are allowed. 75 chargefor thelynching exhib it. Children must be accompa nied by an adult to enter that wordin our name. It starts with a G ‘The Great Blacks Museum!” ‘Repeat after me,” said Martin, ‘The Great Blacks in Wax Muse- children is a primary > museumis on th levels, but does not have « vators most federal holid. Admission is There Academy in TempleHills, Md., if they knew where they were “The black museum!” shoutedenthusiastically. on Sundays. It alsois open on Mondays during February Julyand August, as well as on for college students and se nior citizens, $3.75 for chil dren 12 to 17 5 for children 2 to 11. Discounted group rates are available people who do not have any | @ The busiest m gust, followed t February Saturdays, and noon to 5 p.m. Everybody remember, the things youwill see are not real,” stressed. hours. > museum, Jiiko Caldwell, CAL Baltimore's Great Wax Museumis open9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Tuesdays through the 75 first-graders entered the tour of Holland, Belgien. Hhy 300-344 9834 Ys, Haina La Area tation Raped City, SE ST7OL lip 1-800-529-0105 include round-trip airfare from Salt Lake City, all transportation F or a brochure, cal Cruise & Travel ‘Masters Salt Lake City, Phone: 268-4470 or 800/264-0557 v Brack Has Conn Reservanons © Hw, Com ® Ae |