BALTIMORE — The National Great Blacks in Wax Museum isn't like other museums.
The exhibits, the setup, the general feeling in the air are all different from the moment you walk in.
The museum has been standing tall on North Avenue since 1988, but the vision started earlier than that.
"We started with four wax figures that we would take around [the] Baltimore DC metropolitan area to set up as exhibits and then put them into the hatchback of my Pontiac J 2000...We went from there to becoming a traveling exhibit when we were a traveling exhibit it at that point, and then in 1983, moved to Saratoga Street," Dr. Joanne Martin, president and CEO of The National Great Blacks in Wax Museum said.
Those wax figures went from four to over 150. Once you enter the museum, you'll see figures like Barack Obama, Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X.
Despite all of the historical Easter Eggs in the museum, Dr. Martin says she wants people to understand the importance of voting above all else.
"If we're looking at the history, where the citizenship question is being politicized, I want them to understand what the 14th Amendment means. I want them to understand that the Dred Scott case was about citizenship."
The museum isn't just big to Baltimoreans, but people all over the country want to take a look at it.
Actress Lupita Nyong'o stopped by the museum to prepare for her role in 12 Years a Slave. Saying, "I don't know how to prepare for that role."
"She said when she walked in the door, the first thing she saw was our 500 pound bale of cotton. That's what she was rewarded for as a slave," Dr. Martin said.
That's not the only thing you see when you first walk in the door.
You can enter a slave ship and see where the slaves were kept and what their living conditions looked like.
Seeing these moments in time can be a lot for people. Dr. Martin always likes to see the impact these exhibits have on kids specifically.
"I had a teacher tell me she brought a Girl Scout troop. One of the kids marveled at the fact that there were slaves on the slave ship, little boys, eight to 11-years-old," Dr. Martin said.
The museum's lynching exhibit is so powerful, it comes with a parental advisory warning.
Kids under a certain age aren't even allowed down there without a parent. Again, Dr. Martin takes note of the impact this exhibit has on people.
"One of the kids said, 'look at those two little girls at that hanging,' there were two little white girls who dressed in their Sunday best. One of the kids said, 'why would their mama let them come to a hanging,'" Dr Martin explains.
It's these reactions the museum president and CEO savors.
"I get so much insight from them and I never want to stop hearing their voices. That's what resonates for me, not so much as what I see as an adult, but what our children are seeing."
"They are the ones who are going to be the leaders of this world. And if they can learn to respect all of the ways that we make up what is the United States of America, the ways we make up what is the world and whether you are of Asian ancestry or Asian American, whether you're Japanese American, whether your Native American or indigenous, whether you're African American, whether you are Caucasian American, you are the ones who are going to make the decisions about what this world becomes," she adds.
What's next for the museum? They plan to expand and it's starting with their new Cash Crop exhibit.
It's an exhibit showcasing the slave trade, specifically the conditions of slaves on slave ships.
"Seeing that imagery of the Brooks slave ship plan, which is the image that depicts how they put the people in the ships, made me think about how does that still happen today, Stephen Hayes, creator of Cash Crop said.
Using cement, steel and wood, the figures in this exhibit are bound by chains, naked and afraid.
On the opposite wall, he's made over 250 slave ships and placed them in boxes.
"What I did was reproduce this over and over to talk about the capitalism part of transporting people as slaves or goods and commodities to make a profit," Hayes said.
As of 2023, the museum has been in existence for 40 years and they have no plans on slowing down.
"Great Blacks in Wax is still here, still presenting the history, still bringing new exhibits, new knowledge, new perspectives to the exhibit... Telling the story uncompromisingly and unapologetically," Dr. Martin said.
