SoulOfAmerica.com’s list lists museums that reveal and interpret how black people have lived, worked, created, struggled, overcome and celebrated through the ages.

The venues hold rare treasures such as a replica of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birmingham jail cell, photographer James Van Der Zee’s portraits of Harlem residents in the 1930s and ’40s and baseballs autographed by Negro Baseball Leaguers like Josh Gibson. Black museums are also the caretakers of our legacies, as illustrated by the August Wilson Center for African American Culture’s production of new dance, music and theater works, the Harvey Gantt Center for African-American Arts & Culture bringing the remarkable Hewitt Collection home and the National Underground Railroad Center’s continued efforts to abolish present-day slavery around the world.

Announcement of the list coincides with two major museums opening recently and nearly all the institutions expanding collections and gallery space. According to SoulOfAmerica.com Founder and Publisher Thomas Dorsey, “Now is a perfect opportunity to explore black museums as they lead our next cultural renaissance happening nationwide — not just in Harlem.”

SoulOfAmerica.com’s Top 21 African-American Museums – listed in alphabetical order are:

1.   African Burial Ground Museum & Monument
2.   African-American Museum of Dallas
3.   African-American Museum of Philadelphia
4.   American Jazz Museum & Negro Leagues Baseball Museum
5.   August Wilson Center for African-American Culture
6.   Birmingham Civil Rights Institute
7.   Boston Museum of African-American History
8.   California African American Museum
9.   Charles Wright Museum of African-American History
10.   Du Sable Museum of African-American History
11.   Frederick Douglass-Isaac Myers Museum of Dallas
12.   Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts & Culture
13.   Muhammad Ali Center
14.   Museum of the African Diaspora
15.   National Buffalo Soldiers Museum
16.   National Civil Rights Museum
17.   National Great Blacks in Wax Museum
18.   National Underground Railroad Freedom Center
19.   Reginald Lewis Museum of Maryland African-American History & Culture
20.   Stax Museum of American Soul
21.   Studio Museum in Harlem

SoulOfAmerica.com chose museums that ranked high in at least two of the following categories:

Founded in1997, SoulOfAmerica.com is the only comprehensive, most quoted and highest-traffic Black Travel website. Over 500,000 BlackWebAwards.com voters named SoulfOfAmerica.com “Best Site for Travel Information” for 2007, 2008 and 2009. 

Related posts:

1. Storyteller of black America Director shapes mission of Smithsonian’s newest museum. As the founding...
2. Gates Foundation gives black history museum $10M The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is giving $10 million...
3. African-American Museum’s ‘Time Has Come,’ Says Founding Director Undertaking the project is Lonnie Bunch, tasked with the challenge...
4. Make 10 African-American museums your next destination For more than 50 years, African-American museums have made it...
5. Black Fashion Museum collection finds a fine home with Smithsonian Lois Alexander Lane, founded, curated and kept on life support...