Black Museums Should Celebrate Black Gays

Black museums should celebrate gay blacks. Columnist Deb Price interviews William Billingsley, executive director of the Association of African American Museums. "Billingsley acknowledged to me, the nation's 250 black museums are virtually silent when it comes to truthfully describing the lives of gay African-Americans." There have been several notable exceptions, most recently this week in Virginia. The Alexandria Black History Museum showed Brother Outsider, the celebrated PBS documentary that explores the life of civil rights activist Bayard Rustin and the obstacles put in his path because of his sexual orientation.

Comments

[Roger Pollard]

The showing of "Brother Outsider" was well received here in Alexandria. Several of the Museum staff have remarked that they would be receptive to other opportunities to highlight African-American SGL lives. Their Black History Month exhibit on Kente cloth has brought unusually large numbers to their programs this year.

[asmith16]

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[Rob]

Sometimes, comments even in jest make me sad, because they show me that we have a long way to go even in 2006.

[Rob]

I missed this event, but from this will go to the museum. Thank you Rod for paasing this on.

[Rod]

Rob, don't feel too bad. Sometimes peole just love making ridiculous statements to see thmeselves in print.

[Bruce Knotts]

Brother Outsider is a great documentary. I don't understand why it is not commercially available and more accessable. Only organizations can purchase it and at over $200, This just seems another way to keep the general public from learning of the contributions of Bayard Rustin. Just as the contributions of African Americans used to be excluded from the history books, we now see how LGBT contributions are hidden from the public in the same manner as used to be done for people of color.