As you may have noticed by now most of my travel over the last few weeks has been throughout the Mid-West and in the Mid-West you tend to find nothing, but museums built around the history of the Mid-West. Makes good sense right? Well after so many stops at these places the history all starts to sound the same and another buffalo or Indian tale begins to become a little on the played out side. For this reason I decided to skip any state focused museum and check out a more specific one. That is how I found myself at the Idaho Black History Museum.
The museum which used to be an old church is nothing huge, but the little information found tucked inside the four walls goes a long way. Their current exhibit, the Invisible Idahoan 1805-Present shows how few Blacks there are in Idaho and highlights the major achievements made by many of them. One of the things that stood out in my mind is a map showing all the active hate groups across the U.S. as of 2004. What I saw was not only shocking, but incredibly sad. It was the first time I had seen a map with such information. On my way out I was told by the curator that I must return next year as some very exciting things are planned. There will be a big Black History month celebration in February, an evening with the Regina Carter Quintet and the 49th Annual Ebony Fashion Fair will all be happening next year.
So far Idaho has not popped up on my 2007 radar, but just in case it should come up on yours you may want to look at their event calendar now.
The Idaho Black History Museum is located at 508 Julia Davis Dr. (Julia Davis Park), Boise, ID 83702. Ph. 208.433.0017