History
The Kansas African American Museum, formerly the venerable old Calvary Baptist Church was once the cornerstone of Wichita's vibrant black community. It was built in 1917 when the congregation's leaders worked nights and weekends -separate and apart from their jobs to finish the church. This building stands as a monument to human endurance as well as to dignity. The people who worshiped here endured painful racial segregation and fought those conditions with dignity. That's why when Calvary Baptist Church relocated in 1972, Doris Kerr Larkins and others fought to protect this building from urban renewal's wrecking ball. Larkins and many others launched the First National Black Historical Society Musuem in 1973. By 1993, the building joined the National Historic Register of Historic Places and in 1997, became the Kansas African American Museum. It's that legacy that we preserve here, while building a new one.
Specialties
The mission of the Kansas African American Museum is to tell the stories of the African American experience in Kansas in order to educate the past and inspire a hope for the future. TKAAM is composed of three exhibit areas, the Main Gallery, Permanent Collection Wing and the Balcony Gallery. The Main Gallery is a changing gallery that displays our major exhibitions which educate and inspire our visitors through the stories of the African American experience in Kansas. The Permanent Collection Wing contains our collection of authentic African artifacts, including tribal masks, headdresses, and statues. Also, on display are exhibits featuring items from our permanent collection including photographs from Kansas native Gordon Parks, artwork from Dr. Samella Lewis, Elizabeth Catlett and Jacob Lawrence, and jazz and blues photographs from area performers. The Balcony Gallery contains changing exhibits that include artwork of young artists and historical photos of early black Kansas.