Entrepreneurs Whose Business is Black History

- By

Black History 101 Mobile Museum

Like Galloway, El-Hakim’s business calls for constant travel — largely due to the fact that his business is inside of a trailer. After realizing that he had a knack for collecting Black history artifacts in 1991, El-Hakim decided six years later that he would officially take his collection on the road. He uses the items to educate and garner more interest in Black history.

“The moment when I knew I wanted to seriously pursue the museum came after experiencing the very first public response in Detroit after an exhibit,” said El-Hakim. “The way people responded let me know that it was a very valuable teaching tool I was offering to the community.  People loved what they saw and started to call on me for all types of events.”

Since 1994, up until last August, El-Hakim taught History in Detroit Public Schools. Now all of his time is dedicated to organizing tours and exhibits. NECESSARY! (Malcolm X), The 3 M’s (Martin, Motown and Michael) and Drum Majors for Justice are a few exhibits that the museum has showcased. The current show, Drum Majors for Justice is also the title of El-Hakim’s recently published book — a collection of quotes from African American political leaders.

Walking into El-Hakim’s museum one can expect to see items that portray everything correlating with the Black experience from slavery to hip-hip.

“There are a few controversial artifacts that people always point out such as an original KKK hood from the 1920’s and the original lynching photograph from Marion, Indiana that inspired Billie Holiday’s Strange Fruit,” El-Hakim added.  “There are documents and photos signed by people such as Malcolm X, Rosa Parks, Mary McLeod Bethune, Paul Robeson, Michael Jackson and Carter G. Woodson.”

Once a used trailer, the Black History 101 Mobile Museum was gutted out and redesigned by a group of architecture students from the University of Detroit Mercy. Outside of the trailer is a city inspired mural painted by Detroit graffiti artist Sintex.

“My interest in Black History stems from being inspired by conscious hip-hop in the 80’s.  Public Enemy, KRS One, X-Clan, Melle Mel, and others celebrated being Black and being responsible to the Black community,” El-Hakim said.

Professor Griff of Public Enemy has been a longtime guest speaker at the museum, supporting El-Hakim’s mission for the past seven years.

“I only consider myself a student in this work.  It keeps me humble knowing that there is always something new to learn about Black history.  No one knows it all, so all I try to do is share the parts of Black history that have inspired and motivated me to have a deeper respect for our contributions. My life’s work is to share this history 365 days a year so it never ends.”

Comment Disclaimer: Comments that contain profane or derogatory language, video links or exceed 200 words will require approval by a moderator before appearing in the comment section. XOXO-MN