>> The following is a presentation of KBTC Profiles.

>> I believe we've all been slighted on stories.

There's this rich history coming out of the continent of Africa that's not being told intentionally.

And I see my role as making sure that the fullness of stories are told.

My name is Mr. Delbert Richardson, second generation storyteller, ethnomuseumologist, and the curator of the national award-winning American History Traveling Museum, The Unspoken Truths.

At what point did I become interested in history?

Nineteen seventy-three, University of Washington campus.

The epiphany for me was there were these students from all over United States calling themselves Black.

Well, in my neighborhood in the '60s and '70s, if you called me Black, we were going to fight.

Because we had been socialized to believe that "Black" was a negative term.

What I grew on to embrace and understand that these students have made a decision that they were going to choose how they wanted to be seen.

And Black was an affirmation.

So I made this shift from taking on or being socialized to believe something to understand that I can choose.

I collect primarily artifacts from four specific periods: Mother Africa, American chattel slavery, the Jim Crow era, and the last section, which is Black inventions and inventors.

A traditional or regular display consists of 12 six-foot tables, which I pack into my -- I love saying as my 1997 Ford Explorer.

And I'll take a given space and I'll transform it to a living, breathing, walking experience.

My primary audience is pre-K to 12th grade because I operate from the belief the sooner you provide information to early learners to create a space for curiosity, then the opportunity for them to be even more excited about learning will manifest.

When I start to share that we're called African Americans -- and by the way, let me help you understand in Africa, this acronym called STEM.

Let me share with you how some of those skill sets or some of those sciences actually originated in Africa.

Then all of a sudden you see the ears perk up.

"Tell me more."

And before you know it, they start to make this connection.

Do you know what?

I am from an amazing people.

It must mean I'm amazing also, too.

>> I think because he does it in a fun way, an interactive way, the way that I think most young people learn, they soak it in and they absorb it in a way that they know is good for them.

Mr. Delbert, he's a treasure.

>> I really did enjoy the way he talked to us.

Calling us young adults that was a really nice thing.

I liked how he let the kids talk and how we were able to touch things and how we were able to just roam around and look around.

I really do enjoy how he brought us out.

I really do enjoy coming to the museum and seeing him.

>> It is one of the most phenomenal experiences I've ever had going through his museum.

And it's one of -- I think, one of the most pivotal experiences a person could have, especially a young person, because what it does is, as you go through the museum, you don't just intellectualize what has happened in our history.

You feel it.

You touch it.

You experience it.

>> It's empowering information that can build foundations for strong individuals as they continue to grow, as well as allow for people who might be familiar with some of the information to connect with others and to learn a little bit more about not only Black people but using a larger cultural responsiveness to understand how to relate and challenge and resist systems of oppression, specifically around identity and creation and culture.

>> I felt really, like, just empowered, you know.

When I was younger, he made you think, like, "Okay, what can I create now?"

Taking that same type of empowerment impact, creating my own thing.

So I feel like it's really been very empowering and very empowering.

>> I operate from the belief that the sooner that we help them understand the shoulders they stand on -- I'm talking about all children, even white children because culture is just not Black and brown.

It's a rich culture.

As we go through the exhibit, I'll share with you how whiteness as a social construct has, I think, some kind of way robbed a lot of European, people of descent, from really connecting to their culture.

So what happens quite a bit, even for adults, when the first thing they say is, "Wow, I didn't know that."

So once they even become more aware of what I do and how I do it, then the real work happens.

I'll say the magic.

How might we come together and work in tandem for the benefit of educating children and young adults?

[ Music ] >> Funding for this edition of KBTC Profiles provided by the KBTC Association.

>> KBTC Profiles are available at kbtc.org.