Bankruptcy

Riley: The Charles Wright Museum Shouldn't Be 'A Less-Loved Stepchild'

February 02, 2014, 7:52 AM


"If it is the people’s museum, then the people should fight for it, help pay for it," Rochelle Riley writes. (Flickr photo/Juan N. Only, Creative Commons license)

Free Press columnist Rochelle Riley has a wake-up call about the future of a Detroit Cultural Center museum she calls "a less-loved stepchild," largely overlooked as supporters rally to protect the DIA..


The 120,000-square-foot Museum of African American History opened in 1997.

"No entity is immune from the city’s bankruptcy," she writes, "but we ought to save the Charles H. Wright Museum."

Detroit owns the Wright, the nation’s largest institution committed to preserving and teaching the public about the African-American experience. . . . Under its contract with the museum, which expires in 2019, Detroit is to provide a significant amount of the museum’s operating expenses.

That support dropped from 48% in 2010 to 21% this year. The board, which met last week, made publicly clear that the museum is not sustainable without city funding . . .

Its membership is down from 20,000 five years ago (half of whom were students) to 7,000.

The staff has shrunk from 80 to 24.

Riley quotes Birmingham attorney James Cunningham, a museum board member, as saying:

"The failure of the city to adequately fund this treasure would be an incalculable loss, and as humiliating a situation as anything else this great city is going through.”


An iconic display at the Wright Museum.

Walt Douglas, chairman of Avis Ford and also on the 17-year-old museum's board, tells Mayor Mike Duggan in a letter that the Wright “should not be forgotten or overlooked” during bankruptcy negotiations and budget wrangling, Riley reports.

Support isn't just up to city government, the columnist stresses.

For months, as the DIA has fiercely protected its assets, the Wright sat like a less-loved stepchild. . . . If it is the people’s museum, then the people should fight for it, help pay for it, even if it’s one dollar at a time. . . .

We don’t need any more humiliation.

Step up. Become a member. Make a donation. Every dollar counts.

How to help

  • Membership: $15 to $1,000. Details and signup or renewal here. For information: (313) 494-5872 or membership@chwmuseum.org.
  • Donate: Giving page is here or mail check to museum at 315 E. Warren Ave., Detroit, MI 48201.


Read more:  Detroit Free Press


Leave a Comment:

Photo Of The Day