African American Museum of Iowa’s roots date back to 1993

While growing up, the younger of your authors spent most of her Sundays exploring museums and historical sites throughout Linn County. No doubt about it, she is, like her dad, guilty of reading every displayed plaque and of having a capacity to be engrossed in learning about, well, anything.

There’s a case to be made that the road from those Sundays spent among our local history and culture to writing these monthly articles is not a winding path so much as it is a straight one.

Regardless, as we have been reminiscing about those outings and as Black History Month quickly approaches, we couldn’t help but feel pulled to turn our attention to the African American Museum of Iowa — which is among the museums Jessica frequented as a young Cedar Rapidian.

Establishment of African American Museum of Iowa

Established in Cedar Rapids in 1993, the museum is the product of the efforts of a small number of Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church parishioners. The museum since 2003 has been housed in a facility near the Cedar River at 55 12th Ave. SE. It was flooded with 5.5 feet of water during catastrophic flooding in 2008.

It was able to reopen in 2009 but underwent significant renovations again in 2023 — a necessity given developments in the city’s flood control system.

At its core, the African American Museum of Iowa aims to work toward its vision of “building a community that comes together to foster a greater understanding and appreciation of Iowa’s African American history and culture through conversation, engagement, and reflection.”

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Oral Histories LIVE!

On May 13, 2024, Rob took the stage at The History Center in Cedar Rapids to interview Thomas Moore as a part of the museum’s speaker series called Oral Histories LIVE!, which has been endowed in perpetuity by Mike and Esther Wilson.

Moore was the leader of that small group of parishioners who started the African American Museum of Iowa. He kindly spent much of his time with us discussing what it took to get the museum off the ground.

Moore told the audience that he and his team “took almost two years trying to decide who we would be, what story we would tell, how we would raise meaningful dollars.”

At the start, creating a place where young Black Iowans, but particularly young Black and female Iowans, could come to be infused with pride in their heritage was the priority. From there, with the help of former History Center Director Linda Langston, the team was able to take their ideas and “professionalize” them. Through that process, the project began to take on the shape of a museum.

Moore also was able to help speak to the way in which the museum is funded. As it turned out, and is a little unusual for this type of organization, large corporations with ties to the community — including Rockwell Collins (now Collins Aerospace), Transamerica and John Deere — all made substantial contributions to the museum. In addition to these donations, the museum is reliant on grants and small donors as well.

When asked what he is most proud of among the museum’s accomplishments, Moore told us that he particularly takes pride in the relationships the museum has built with other area cultural organizations, the privilege of having loaned artifacts from the Obama administration’s collection displayed in this community, and an ambitious George Washington Carver exhibit.

Finally, Moore made a point to say that while he has largely stepped away from museum leadership, the current direction of the museum is an exciting one. He cited efforts to engage in conversations and programming around current events that affect Black Americans as something that will continue to draw more visitors.

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Programming across Cedar Rapids

If you’re interested in listening to The History Center’s interview with Thomas Moore in full, you can find the recording at www.historycenter.org/oralhistorieslive. We hope you’ll also keep your eyes peeled for an announcement regarding the next Oral Histories event.

Finally, we would encourage you to visit www.blackiowa.org to learn more about the African American Museum of Iowa, its exhibits, how to get involved, and for details about upcoming programming. Our thanks, once again, to Thomas Moore for lending us his vital narrative regarding the history of this cornerstone institution in Linn County.

Jessica Cline is a Leadership & Character Scholar at Wake Forest University. Her dad, Rob Cline, is not a scholar of any kind. They write this monthly column for The History Center. Comments: HistoricalClines@gmail.com