Bay Area museums and libraries offer myriad ways to explore Black history and culture, from contemporary art to protest movements. Here’s just a sampling.
African American Museum and Library, Oakland
Housed in Oakland’s former main library, this special reference library is home to 16,000 books by or about African Americans, 70,000 photographs, a rare book collection and an archive of 160 special collections.
“It’s a repository for African American history,” says library assistant Marco Frazier.
In the 1940s, efforts began to collect oral histories and artifacts about African Americans in the Bay Area. The growing collection moved to the Oakland Public Library’s Golden Gate branch in the 1980s and then a public-private partnership with the Northern California Center for Afro-American History in the 1990s.
Visitors view the Festival of Black Dolls exhibit organized by the American Black Beauty Doll Association at the African American Museum and Library in Oakland. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
The museum’s current “Visions Toward Tomorrow” exhibit upstairs highlights the history of African American communities in Oakland. But on a recent weekend, the space was taken over by a tribute to Black doll artists. It’s an annual event founded by Karen Oyekanmi, who created the American Black Beauty Doll Association in 1984 to create Black dolls in a positive image for children of color.
Details: Open from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday-Thursday and Saturday, and from noon to 5:30 p.m. Friday. Frazier offers museum tours at noon on Saturday or by appointment. 659 14th St., Oakland; oaklandlibrary.org/aamlo
Black Panther Party Mini Museum, West Oakland
In the summer of 2020, in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, West Oakland resident Jil Vest felt bombarded by the many murals depicting violence committed against Black people. “I’m not going to paint pictures of what’s being done to Black people. I want to paint pictures of what Black people do,” she remembers thinking.
So she launched the West Oakland Mural Project, using the side of her home as a canvas for an image celebrating the women of the Black Panther Party.
And when her downstairs tenants moved out in 2021, she converted the whole first floor into a museum about the Black Panther Party and its accomplishments.
“History is supposed to be the study of what people did,” she says. “Oftentimes, as Black people in America, we have been taught that our history is the study of what was done to us. If this were a museum filled with what was done to the Black Panther Party, you would leave devastated. I don’t want that energy in my house.”
Instead, the message her museum delivers is inspired by the achievements of the party, that “18- and 19-year-old young men and women can feed children, take care of elders, open clinics and pre- and post-natal care, create free ambulance programs and give children eyeglasses.”
“This project has accomplished exactly what I set out to accomplish,” she says. “Instead of looking at images that cause your shoulders to curl forward, we’re looking at this beautiful image that causes your shoulders to go back.”
Details: Open by appointment — text 646-306-7175 — at 831 Center St., Oakland. Looking to learn more about Black history in West Oakland? Vest suggests taking a Black Liberation Walking Tour; learn more at https://www.blwt.org/tours.
Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco
Pedestrians walk past the Museum of the African Diaspora on Mission Street in downtown San Francisco. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)
There’s contemporary art … and then there’s 20-year-old MoAD, where much of the art on display was created last year. This peaceful space in San Francisco’s museum district is home to rotating, thought-provoking exhibits, such as “Liberatory Living: Protective Interiors and Radical Black Joy,” a collection of furnishings and artworks by 16 designers and artists on display through March 2.
Details: Open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday at 685 Mission St., San Francisco; https://www.moadsf.org.
Domini Hoskins Black History and Learning Center, Redwood City
With her daughter Kate Hoskins behind her, Carolyn Hoskins, founder of the Domini Hoskins Black History Museum and Learning Center, shows off her collection of sports memorabilia. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)
This museum found a permanent home in Redwood City last January. But its origin dates back nearly 25 years, when young Domini Hoskins, then a student at Belmont’s Central Elementary School, was dreading having to write yet another Black History Month essay about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Aren’t there any other famous Black people?” he asked his grandmother, Carolyn.
Carolyn recalls being taken aback and trying to explain to her grandson that the rich history of African American achievement in the U.S. isn’t something that can be compressed into just one month a year or limited to Dr. King, Rosa Parks or Malcolm X. So they started learning together.
Today, the Domini collection fills 22,000 square feet of museum space, its historic and contemporary artifacts a celebration of Black excellence. You’ll find displays celebrating African American inventors, such as George Crum, inventor of the potato chip. There are NFL jerseys from famous athletes, records by celebrated musicians and memorabilia from historic political victories, including President Barack Obama’s election.
Details: Open from noon to 6 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday and until 5 p.m. Sunday at 890 Jefferson Ave., Redwood City; hoskinsblackhistorymuseum.org.
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Black Panther Party Museum, Oakland
The Dr. Huey P. Newton Foundation opened this museum last January in a prime downtown location. A collection of striking portraits of former Black Panther Party members from chapters around the U.S. is paired with personal essays and reflections about their time with the party. Another exhibit, “Each One Teach One: The History of the Oakland Community School,” highlights the historic school the Panthers ran from 1973 to 1982.
Details: Free. Open from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday at 1427 Broadway, Oakland; hueypnewtonfoundation.org/black-panther-party-museum.
In the works: Silicon Valley African American Cultural Center
Silicon Valley African American Cultural Center and housing development at 2001 The Alameda in San Jose, concept. (Courtesy Moody Nolan, Y.A. studio) (Moody Nolan, Y.A. studio)
A Santa Clara County center for African American culture is expected to break ground this year and open in 2027. Helmed by project director Walter Wilson and supported with Measure A and state and federal funding, the Silicon Valley African American Culture Center proposal includes plans for a community hub, affordable housing and retail.
Details: Expected to open in 2027 at 2100 The Alameda in San Jose; svafricanamericanculturalcenter.org.
