Baltimore County, MD Hello Baltimore County, 21 Mar 2016

Previous Meeting Next Meeting

⏯

youtube image

►

From YouTube: Diggs-Johnson Museum Tour

Description

Join us for a video tour of the Diggs-Johnson Museum and learn about their educational programs.

A

Welcome to hello, baltimore county., I'm ellen kobler.. On february 18th,, county executive, kevin kamenetz announced a new annual award,, the louis s. diggs award,.

A

Honoring african-american heritage in baltimore, county.

A

The award is named for baltimore county resident louis diggs,.

A

A respected authority on baltimore county's, african-american history.

A

The first recipients of the award were audrey simmons and ray banks,.

A

Who created the hubert v. simmons museum for negro leagues, baseball.

A

The award ceremony was held at the owings mills, library,.

A

Home of the hubert v. simmons museum for negro leagues, baseball.

A

Mr. louis diggs', exhaustive research has led him to publish 10 books,.

A

Present lectures and historic, tours, and manage the diggs-johnson museum in granite, maryland.

A

Hello baltimore county recently visited the museum..

A

Let's take a look.

A

( ♪♪♪ ), we're here at the diggs-johnson museum in granite in western baltimore county with mr. louis diggs himself..

A

Thank you so much for hosting us. oh,. Thank you so much for getting us some publicity.

B

Really appreciate it.

A

Sure! you're tucked away on offutt road, and it is just the most beautiful facility,.

A

And when you look at the work that you and your colleagues have done, -- to take what was a very dilapidated building, that dated back to...how far?.

B

Cornerstone says 1887. some paper, 1869 -- said this church was also here.

A

All right. so,, you and your group have restored it to just magnificent beauty.

A

And offering wonderful displays of african-american life,.

A

Going back a century and a half, right?.

B

A

Yeah. now why don't you first, please tell us a little bit about your own background and how you got into the african-american history.

B

Okay., first of all,, I would like people to know.

B

That I didn't even start doing this sort of research until--.

B

First, I retired from 20 years in the military, 20 years in the civil service,.

B

And when I was about 60 --, that was 25 years ago, --.

B

I started down in the winters lane community.

B

Where kids from the catonsville high school --.

B

My children had me go there to become a--, asked me to be a role model to the boys, because I did teach youngsters in the military --.

B

Sergeant major down at morgan for years and dc school system --, I taught rotc.

B

So,, I was pretty good with boys --. I only have four sons: myself.

B

So, when I went there,, not only did these kids really accept me, but they are the ones that convinced me.

B

To start some serious research- and that was because the class that I was teaching,.

B

It was about how to research your family roots in your community.

B

And we found that the black children in the winters lane area.

B

Knew absolutely nothing about how their community even began.,.

B

They couldn't find anything --, the library,, the catonsville historical society,, nothing.

B

And at the end of my class,, which went an entire half a semester,.

B

These kids begged me to help them find a little bit of history.

B

About where they came, from. uh huh., I said that they're--, I'm not really from baltimore county,, I'm from baltimore city.

B

But I couldn't say no to them.

B

and they motivated me to write my first book.

B

It all started on winters lane..

B

That's when I found that there was no history of black life.

B

Anywhere in the county,, except on the slavery, era.

B

So, I just started one book and now working on my eleventh.

A

Eleven books later. all right.. Well, please tell us a little bit about this beautiful museum where we're sitting.

A

Okay, this museum started as the --.

B

It's called cherry hill, aump, african union methodist, protestant church.

B

And linwood johnson,, who has been my mentor for years,.

B

We were able to locate the last surviving trustee,, mrs. helen johnson.

B

She was really up in age, and this is when I started to do my research on my sixth book, "surviving in america,".

B

About this particular community.

B

and she wanted her little church saved so bad,.

B

And she asked linwood and I, she said, "if. I gave you this church,.

B

Would you promise me you would try to save it?"?

B

We said that, yes, we would try to save it..

B

So we immediately formed a non-profit organization.

B

And accepted the building and the grounds,, which we own,.

B

Our non-profit organization owns, and thanks to--.

B

Actually, she's on our board, adrienne jones, speaker pro tem,.

B

She did arrange to get us a nice grant to start our process.

B

And, believe me, ellen,, that was about, almost 10 years, ago...

B

Yeah. ...that, we got ¤300,000 from the state.

B

That was increased later to ¤400,000 or pretty close to ¤400,000.

B

in baltimore county,. It was then the office of community conservation, --.

B

Oh my god,, they gave us, I don't know how many thousands of dollars to do survey work; had to go to pennsylvania.

B

To get a company to survey where the cemetery is.

B

To be sure that we don't interfere with any of the burial sites.

B

It just took an awful long time to get all this done,, but thanks to the county and to the state, november of 2015,,.

B

We were finally able to convert this church --.

B

Changed absolutely nothing on the exterior of the church.

B

Because we will get it designated historic.

B

Instead of just hiring an architect to work along with us,.

B

I hired a preservation architect whose name was roger katzenberg,.

B

Who made sure that this building stay within the guidelines.

B

Of the secretary of the interior's standards.

B

So that there would be no problem getting it designated historic,.

B

Which I haven't done yet, but I certainly will do.

A

Well, it's been just a labor of love for you.

B

Truly, for all of us.

A

We'd love to take a look around in just a moment,, but first,. Please tell people about the special event that you have in the month of february for black history, month.

B

Yes, our board is-- we're hosting a special program.

B

During black history month., we will have two activities here during that day:.

B

One from 10:00 to 12:00 and the other from 1:00 to 3:00.

B

And because of the extremely limited parking that we have --.

B

The cemetery takes up just about all the parking --.

B

So we will manage parking for people on the grass and so forth.

B

And because we cannot park on offutt road --, it's just too small.

B

So these two programs are really special.

B

Because we have a wonderful display by mrs. cockey.

B

And my grandmother's [indistinct]., I am hoping that people bring children, so they can actually see --.

B

Physically see what life was like and what they wore.

B

And whatever they did, photographs., ms. cockey has it all. also,. We will have a display and talk about. Henrietta lacks.

B

Down in turner station area., they will be here as well.

A

Very nice. all right., I'm anxious to see what you have here.

B

Great!, let's go! ( ♪♪♪ ).

A

All right, and our tour guide here from the museum, is none other than francis cockey,, who is the owner of a good bit.

A

Of the collection that we'll be seeing in just a moment.

A

Shall we start by looking at this wonderful book that you've created?.

A

C

Well, this was created to help young people understand family life.

C

And I found so many pictures of my ancestors.

C

And I had them enlarged and created this big book.

B

And as I traveled throughout the state of maryland,.

C

I took this book with me. and page by page,. I went through it, talked about my family.

C

Very nice. okay.

A

Beautiful penmanship,, I must say.

C

Oh, thank you.. Let's take a look at some of the fascinating artifacts...

C

okay,. All right.

A

...That, you have here, and how do they come to make it to the museum?.

C

Well, actually,, if we take a look over here,, this gentleman was my maternal great uncle.

C

And he lived on bond avenue in reisterstown and when he passed in 1984,, I was asked to be one of the trustees of the estate.

C

So when I went into his house, I got a chance to go through.

C

And go upstairs and I noticed a ladder in the bathroom.

C

And I said," what's there?", I was talking to the executor and he went up and said,.

C

"Oh, there are lots of things up in the attic." and I said, "well,. Let me go up." when I took a look,. This is where I found five trunks.

C

And I thought, "oh,, I wonder: what's in there." and at the time, I was working in the baltimore city, schools.

C

As a support teacher and I thought, "wouldn't young people like to see some of these old things?".

A

Oh,, it's incredible.

C

Yeah,, so it took me days and days to, you know, pick through.

C

And one of the largest trunks was my great grandmother's. Trunk.

C

Oh,, your great grandmother. right,, so you'll see many artifacts.

A

Well, show us some of your favorite things, would you?.

C

Right, okay. well, one of my favorite things here --. This is my great grandmother right, here, rebecca francis [indistinct].

C

She was born in 1861 and there's a copy of her marriage license.

C

She was married in 1881.

C

Okay,, so these are some of the things I found.

C

Like in the kitchen of that house.

C

and as we move around,, this is--.

C

His name was john jacob lee and he was a cook at hannah, more academy in reisterstown.

C

For over 50 years., so he accumulated a lot of property.

C

So when he passed, you know,, we were able to auction all the property.

C

And use the proceeds to help 32 family members.

C

And other young people go to college.

A

Oh,, my goodness. isn't that wonderful! so, yes, so... speaking of school,, I see educational items, here.

C

Yes, yes., so they were things--. They are old school papers that belonged to my great aunt liolia and there you can see 1908, 1914.

C

I thought, "oh, my heavens!. These things are about 100 years old!". This was in liolia's trunk..

C

This was her doll, right., here's some of the school books that they used there.

C

And their names were in front of the books.

C

tin-type photos --. You don't see too many of those around today, right.

C

I remember this as a child because they used to give out boxes of candy.

C

In the churches, at christmas time, the hard candy.

C

So I had a little collection of what was going on in the church also.

A

Here we hit the fashion [indistinct].

C

That's come a long way. remember, things formally fashionable.

C

So these are some of the shoes I saved..

C

I gave away some of the things.

C

so, here we are again..

C

Here are some of the hats.. There were loads and loads of hats up there in hat boxes.

C

So,, I probably took about six of those.

A

And sleeping cap here. yes,, yes, it is. yes.

C

And I remember this from my childhood because my grandmother also used to use these tapestries on the wall.

C

Instead of pictures, people put tapestries on the wall,.

C

And in the spring they took them down.

C

Took them outside --, you would beat the dust out, put them. Away.

C

In the fall, they went back up on the wall, again.

A

Here's an old school curling, iron.

C

Yes, for their hair.

A

Put it in the fire and then I imagine you had to time it pretty well.

C

Yes. yes, and here's one of the ways they heated, you know,.

C

The straightening comb. here's another little thing to pull it.

C

kitchen stove, wow. right. there were a number of ice shavers there..

C

This is what they used when they made snowballs.

C

See, and they would have a cake of ice and it would shave- and this would fill up with crushed ice.- how nice. and the soap shaker right there.

C

okay, these are--. This is a collection that the diggs-johnson museum--.

A

And this is a photograph of someone who might be familiar to a lot of people.

C

Yes, henrietta lacks' family., yes, okay.

A

Well, thank you for showing us your wonderful collection.

C

And we absolutely invite people to go on your website and come out.

B

And visit, as well as come in to your special event.

C

That would be wonderful.

A

Thank you so much for having us.

C

You're welcome. all right.

A

And we'll be right back with more of hello, baltimore county.