Watch for the Museum’s latest exhibit as it “pops-up” throughout the community!
A Stone of Hope: Black Experiences in the Fox Cities is a “pop-up museum” about local Black history from the 1700s to the present.
Traveling for two years, the exhibit will visit area schools, churches, libraries, government buildings and community centers. By visiting numerous sites, our goal is to reach a large audience to share this marginalized history and make it part of our collective historic consciousness.
Before 1900, the Fox Cities were home to a growing Black population of Civil War veterans, small business owners and community leaders. Losing hope, most Blacks left the area by 1920 due to increasing harassment from police, racial exclusion at hotels, racial covenants barring home ownership and minstrelsy advertising and entertainment.
The exhibit also addresses Appleton’s past sundown custom and racial exclusion from 1915 to 1961, and how the Fox Cities emerged from this mountain of despair during the Civil Rights Era.
To share this history, the exhibit includes twelve floor banners, each richly illustrated with photographs of individuals, businesses and events described in the narrative. A kiosk with oral history videos of current Black residents helps demonstrate how Appleton has moved forward, but also that more work toward equality is needed.
How will you keep hope for equality alive in the Fox Cities?
Where can you
find the exhibit?
June 22, 2014 Appleton Juneteenth City Park, Appleton June 23 – July 20, 2014 Appleton City Hall 100 North Appleton Street, Appleton July 21 – August 17, 2014 Outagamie County Regional Airport W6390 Challenger Dr, Appleton August 18 – August 31, 2014 Harmony Café, 233 E College Ave, Appleton September 1 – September 14, 2014 Appleton Public Library 225 N Oneida St, Appleton September 15 – September 28, 2014 First Congregational United Church of Christ 724 East South River St, Appleton September 29 – October 31, 2014 Seeley G. Mudd Library Lawrence University 611 E College Ave, Appleton November 1, 2014 – January 31, 2015 Appleton Area School District (not available to general public) January 19, 2015 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration Lawrence Memorial Chapel, Appleton
