On Feb. 28, Nia McAdoo and her husband Morris McAdoo from Charlotte, North Carolina, hosted the “Homage Traveling Black History Exhibit” in The Cave inside the D.P. Culp Student Center.
The McAdoo’s brought their artifacts and items within their collection to ETSU to give students the opportunity to learn about Black culture and the African American experience in America.
This was a private collection owned by the couple, with around 200 items within their collection displayed out of a total of nearly 600 items. Their collection dates back from times of slavery to present-day America.
“We’ve been collecting for over 20 years, we attend a ton of private auctions and museum auctions where we were able to build our collection over time,” Nia explained. “Also, some artifacts and items are saved through both sides of our families.”
The exhibit was set up in order of the timeline each event happened. When walking into The Cave, you could see the order in which to follow and observe each table.
“We set up our exhibit in order of how certain events flowed, because we wanted students to be impacted on a visual level,” said Nia. “This way we knew if the students understood where events fell in history in a different way, then just reading about it.”
There were many QR codes placed around the items being talked about in the exhibit to help students have a personalized experience.
“One of my favorite pieces in the collection was by Macon B. Allen, who was the first African American attorney in the United States. Macon B. Allen was a probate judge in 1878 during the Reconstruction era, in Charlotte, North Carolina,” explained Nia.
Nia continues people’s stories and strives to make sure their stories don’t get lost in history.
The exhibit had a stream of people throughout the day come and go from around 12 to 5 p.m. Students and faculty came touring through the exhibit, asking questions and leaving feedback as they left.
“We had a bunch of ETSU’s international students come and visit the exhibit, they were eager to learn and had great questions,” Nia said. “Personally, I loved answering all of the students’ questions because I love sharing what I know with younger generations.”
Students were encouraged to start their own collections as well, so, there were over a dozen different printed out photos at the end of the exhibit students were welcome to take.
“I think this was a strong way to end off Black History Month and we were very grateful to spend our day bringing this exhibit to Johnson City,” Nia concluded.
