What amazing work by the Bluffton University students in Dr. Bush’s theory and application class, uncovering the first Black neighborhoods in Lima.
As a recent first-time visitor to the Allen County Museum, I was taken aback by the lack of any African-American representation aside from a small decades-old display and the African-American dolls in the Mount Vernon dollhouse replica kitchen. We were told that the docents are to say that the dolls were “servants” when I commented on the enslaved scene. We were told that those “servants” had to whistle from the summer kitchen to the “Big House,” so they couldn’t possibly steal any food they were tasked to work on!
The docents told us busloads of local school children visit. Considering that Lima is about 25% African-American, can you imagine how these children must feel only seeing themselves in such a manner?
A Google search finds the troubling history African Americans had in Lima, from the Ku Klux Klan parade in 1923, with a crowd of over 100,000, to the Civil Rights period of disruptions as citizens merely wanted to swim in a pool, up until the peaceful marches after George Floyd was murdered.
An exhibit of contributions of local Black people would be beneficial in teaching our Black youth how valued they are and what they too can achieve. Perhaps an exhibit revealing the ugly truths in Lima’s history that helped pave the way to the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Act? Lastly, all the documentation and research that Dr. Bush’s class diligently worked on should definitely be made into an exhibit as well.
These things matter.
Cathy M. Weygandt
Findlay
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