Banneker-Douglass Museum
The Banneker-Douglass Museum, named for Benjamin Banneker and Frederick Douglass, is dedicated to preserving Maryland's African American heritage and serves as the state's official repository of African American material culture. The museum was dedicated on February 24, 1984.
The original museum was housed within the former Mount Moriah African Methodist Episcopal Church in the heart of historic Annapolis. The Victorian-Gothic structure was included in the Annapolis Historic District in 1971 and placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. The recently completed BDM addition is a four-story addition that uses the nineteenth-century brick of the church's north façade as its interior lobby wall.
A young Frederick Douglass.
Image courtesy of the Banneker-Douglass Museum.
The museum's newest exhibit will begin on February 24, 2024, and will be on display through January 4, 2025. Curated by Thomas James, REVISIT/REIMAGINE: The Civil Rights Era in Maryland and Parallels of Today will be a multidisciplinary exhibition that features historical photographs from the Afro Newspaper archive that chronicle the African American experience, civil rights leaders, and activities in Maryland.
With 2024 being the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Civil Rights Act (1964), the Maryland Commission on African American History and Culture (MCAAHC) and Banneker-Douglass Museum are declaring 2024 as “Maryland’s Year of Civil Rights” with exciting and relevant programming, exhibitions, and partnerships to commemorate the milestone year of this groundbreaking legislation.
Plan your visit to Annapolis and Anne Arundel County and explore this and other Civil Rights programming throughout 2024.
