Museum sharing local Black history at area schools
By Jazmine Knight
The Black Archives Museum is visiting area schools this month to teach students about historical people and events that impacted St. Joseph.
The museum is essentially going on tour to multiple schools, such as Benton High School, Lafayette High School, North Andrew and the Bartlett Center.
On the most recent trip, museum board members and volunteers visited Lafayette High School to teach students about Black historical figures.
Speaker Ramadhan Washington spoke about Booker T. Washington’s visit to St. Joseph in 1906, and speaker Loes Hedge touched on the life of Kelsy Beshears who served as an activist and worked to organize boycotts during segregation.
Lastly, speaker Gary Wilkinson embodied Jeffery Deroin, who is most notable for being a slave of St. Joseph founder Joseph Robidoux. Wilkinson taught the students about Deroin’s life as a trapper.
“They all had an impact in life in St. Joseph, especially for Black people at that time,” Hedge said.
There are multiple tributes to Beshears around town. The most recognizable being the dormitory in her name on Missouri Western State University’s campus, and a racial justice award presented by the YWCA and NAACP that is given to someone in St. Joseph who has actively worked toward equal justice.
“That has brought in a lot of people who didn’t know about her and know who she was,” Hedge said. “Every year they get to hear about who she was and what she did.”
Museum volunteers recognize that Black history is something everyone should learn.
“I always say everybody needs to know their history. If you don’t know where you’ve been, it helps you so that people know where you’re going,” Hedge said.
“Everybody has a history and nobody’s history should be ignored. You know, as I said before, it says that you were here,” she continued.
For the rest of the schools on the tour, speakers will cover topics like voting rights, civil rights and other Black leaders.
The museum also has other upcoming events, such as a program on Deroin at 6 p.m., Feb. 20, at Rolling Hills Library, and a program on Kansas City’s The Call newspaper at 6 p.m., Feb. 27, at the St. Joseph Museums.
