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Dr. Charles Howard Wright, a successful Detroit physician and civil rights activist, founded Detroit’s first International Afro-American Museum in 1965. Inspired by a memorial for Danish World War II heroes, Dr. Wright decided that African Americans needed a place to document, preserve, become educated about, and take pride in their culture ...
On encountering a memorial to World War II heroes in Denmark during the mid twentieth century, Detroit-based obstetrician and gynecologist Dr. Charles H. Wright felt inspired—inspired to create a repository for African-American history and culture, a space for celebration and remembrance that would inspire generations of visitors.
Over half a century since Dr. Wright first opened the International Afro-American Museum in January of 1966, The Wright has expanded significantly in size and in ambition.
Wright would eventually create the International Afro-American Museum (IAM) in 1965 and the doors opened in January 1966. The IAM was located on 1549 West Grand Boulevard in a house owned by Dr. Wright.
- more than 35,000
- 1965 (current facility - 1997)
- Neil Barclay
Mar 12, 2002 · Wright created the International Afro-American Museum in a Detroit row house where he lived and worked in 1965, donating $1,000 a month to pay for a small staff and costs.
In 1965, Wright opened the International Afro-American Museum on West Grand Boulevard. The next year, he opened a traveling exhibit to tour the state. In 1978, the city of Detroit agreed to lease the museum a plot of land in Midtown.
As the Civil Rights Movement brought legislation that ended Jim Crow segregation and forced a nationwide reckoning with our country’s history of racism, Dr. Wright began collecting objects ...
