- It's a really big year for the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History.

The Detroit treasure is celebrating 60 years of preserving and honoring the Black experience.

The museum is gonna commemorate the momentous occasion at the Wright Gala on Saturday, October 11th.

They spoke with Kevin Davidson, the Wright's longtime Director of Design and Fabrication Services about the museum's rich history and his personal connection to the founder.

Kevin, welcome to "American Black Journal."

- Thank you.

It's good to be you.

- So let's start with your history with the Wright, which goes back quite a ways.

Not quite 60 years, but to the majority of that, right?

How did you come to the museum?

- I actually was introduced to the museum in 1980, and I was on loan, placed on loan to the museum from the Detroit Council of the Arts at the time to work on an exhibit that focused on Black insurance companies.

And we completed that project.

And I went on and I got a call from the museum in 1982, and Dr.

Wright wanted me to come in and work on an exhibit on Black voting rights.

And so I met with him and he gave me a book and said, "You know, this is something that you're gonna extract your script from."

I remember the author's name was Holt.

I can't remember his first name.

I think it was Robert Holt.

And so from there, he kind of paired me with one of the longtime volunteers, Margaret Zarif.

And she collected images, I did some additional research and designed and installed that exhibit on voting rights.

And he loved it.

- And he hired you, and you've been there since.

- Right, he invited, he said, "I need you to do one on Charles Drew."

And I did that.

And then he asked me to redesign the mobile unit, which traveled over all around the state.

And so I did that, and he said, "Well, you know, you may as well stick around."

- Right, we're gonna keep you here.

- So it's really interesting to hear you talk about the things you were working on then, you know, an exhibit about Black insurance companies, an exhibit about voting rights.

That really does sum up the range of Dr.

Wright's imagination and vision about what this could be, the full gamut of the Black experience.

And that's really a good way to describe the museum.

- Yes, yes it is, yes it is.

- Yeah.

Talk about in those early days though, what the museum was like and how different it is now.

I mean, now, it's basically like a monument, right?

I mean, it's this wonderful physical space.

Back then, it was a little more understated.

- Yeah, it was located first in the basement of a three row house on West Grand Boulevard and Warren, right on the corner, it was Dr.

Wright's residence.

You know, he and his family lived there.

And so when he founded the museum, he set up exhibits in the basement.

He eventually moved out, moved downtown, and basically went in and converted all of those spaces to gallery spaces.

So when I started, part of my job too was convert some spaces.

So I worked with a carpenter and we went in and, you know, tore out walls and, you know, did some plastering, and I converted some spaces.

And so I started installing exhibits.

It's a house, it's a three row house.

So, you know, when we had tours, you know, you had to take them up the stairs, into the gallery, back out, and into the next building, and back out, and then into the next building and back out.

Dr.

Wright's sister volunteered with us at the time, Pearl Battle, and it was the two of us conducting these tours through the building.

And, you know, we went from that to a structure that we built from the ground up in the cultural center that's occupied by CCS now on the corner of Frederick Douglass and Brush.

And even before we moved into that building, plans were already underway for the Phyllis facility we're in right now.

- [Stephen] For the museum itself that everyone is so familiar with now.

- [Kevin] So Dr.

Wright had his vision, and then Coleman Young had his vision.

And so they kind of merged.

And Coleman Young came up with the funding to support the construction and to maintain the facility.

- Talk about the difference between making exhibits in the basement of a three row house and the space you have now.

I'm thinking of the Jefferson exhibit that was there just a few years ago.

The wonderful art and the costume exhibit that was there last year.

I mean, these are large scale kinds of exhibits now.

Very different from being in a basement.

- It's a different world.

(both laughing) You know, everything had to be put together by hand.

And I'm taking little letters and creating, you know, these introductory panels and, you know, everything had to be constructed by hand back then, more time consuming, you know, we were doing key lines for prints and all of that.

And so it's a different world.

And of course, you know, when you compare just, you know, the space you're talking about, you know, a bathroom versus a mansion.

But along with the change in facilities, you know, you can bring in contractors.

And so that's part of what I do is, you know, do the elevations and floor plans and construction drawings, and they take those and, you know, build these platforms, cases and- - I mean, they're experiences, right?

I mean, I always feel like you're walking through the subject matter when I'm there.

- That's our goal.