The Kinsey Collection: More than an exhibit — it's the shaping of America and the World!

By Renarda A. Williams (aka Abari Sankofa)

It is important to know where you came from in order to know where you are going. And that's what The Kinsey Collection is all about ... educating Black America as to where it came from.

The Kinseys' collection of African American history is not just a glimpse into the history of  Blacks in America. It's not just an account of the oppression we faced after we were stolen from Kemet (an Egyptian term meaning "land of the blacks") where we were kings, queens, scientists, doctors, educators and created empires. It is a glimpse into history that shaped America and the world.


I have long been amazed by Bernard W. Kinsey's Shirley Pooler Kinsey's extraordinary historical collection chronicling the African American experience. It was in 2009 that I first began to receive their press releases. I submitted the contents in my free online newsletter, The Empowerment Initiative News Flash (TEION).

For the past seven years, the Kinseys have focused their attention on their national touring museum exhibit of African American art and history dating back to the year 1600. The collection — which has exhibited in 18 cities, been written of in more than 400 articles and television programs worldwide, and been viewed by more than five million visitors — was the first-ever private collection on display at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in Washington, DC.

Brought together by activism and married more than four decades, the successful couple has raised millions of dollars for numerous organizations and college programs, including their alma mater, Florida A&M University. They have a passion for African American history, art and culture and, in one of the largest private collections of African American art, have amassed artifacts, documents and artwork spanning 400 years of history.

Bernard Kinsey is the president and founder of KBK Enterprises, a management consulting firm with extensive experience and success providing advice and counsel to senior-level executives. He has consulted on economic development with the governments of South Africa, Germany, the U.K., and France, and was appointed Honorary Consul General by the U.S. State Department and the Central African Republic. Kinsey also enjoyed a 20-year association with the Xerox Corporation and was one of the pioneers in breaking down racial barriers in corporate America. His leadership of the Xerox Black Employees Association led to the hiring of thousands of black employees, women, and Latinos, and is the subject of a Harvard Business School case study. 

Last year, I met Bernard Kinsey, and his son son Khalil, at a lunch and lecture at the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center (MTCC) in downtown Little Rock, Arkansas. There to give a preview of the Kinsey exhibit, which debuted at the center April 8 of this year and which closes July 2, Bernard and Khalil spoke of the importance of having an exhibit like The Kinsey Collection to educate African Americans. Bernard Kinsey spoke of wanting to raise the consciousness of blacks so they would understand the significance of our struggle and achievements of the past and present.

The Kinseys also emphasized how essential it is for Black America to know about the contributions African people have made around the world. (When Barnard Kinsey mentioned the role of the Moors of North Africa in the civilizing of Europe, I, being Pan Afrikanist and Africentrist, couldn't help but let out a loud, "YEAH!" Bernard turned around and responded, "that's right brother!")

Two days before the exhibit's opening at Mosaic Templars, Bernard and Khalil Kinsey returned to Little Rock — this time with Shirley Kinsey — where Bernard delivered another powerful lecture at the Clinton School For Public Service. By way of collection, they are hoping to cut down the barriers that exist in Little Rock, and most of America, forged in racial bias, he said.

"What we decided to do, is to really look at this through the untold story, contributions, and achievements [by African Americans]. We have a show that I think is going to knock your socks off! You are going to see stuff that you will never ever see again. If you are into seeing history, seeing these remarkable stories, and wonderful accomplishments of achievements — not just about African Americans, [but] America, and the building of this country — this is what you are going to get.

"Why are we here at the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center? The Mosaic Templars, itself, is in a historical [place], on Ninth Street and Broadway, where in 1883, there were 90,000 policyholders, can you believe that?" Kinsey asked in reference to the fact that the fraternal organization was one that offered insurance for black people. "The Mosaic Templars represented one of the biggest businesses in the South, right here in Little Rock. In 1721, of the 47 people that founded Arkansas, there were six black folks. In Los Angeles, 26 of the 44 people that founded Los Angeles were black, and they spoke Spanish, and they were of African descent. We've been at this thing for a long time, but the history books have decided not to put us in there."

Bernard and Shirley Kinsey interview

                                            
                                                          Bernard and Shirley Kinsey

After this lecture, I had a golden opportunity to interview Bernard, Shirley and Khalil Kinsey when they came to the Mosaic Templars to do an interview with the media. I asked them whether they thought today's African Americans should do more than just acknowledge, learn, and be proud of their history. Shouldn't they also forge their own history for the next generation?

"That's a great question!" Bernard Kinsey acknowledged. "Shirley created a program called SOS — 'Save Our Stuff.' We had a young lady that just started at the Clinton School come up, and she had a tintype of an Union soldier. And I happen to know that it was an Union soldier, because we have a similar tintype from the 1860s. And I said to her, 'Hold on to that.' A young man had the whip that his great-grandfather had, [and that had] been used in Mississippi, in Chickasaw County. What we have to learn how to do is to know the difference between stuff and museum quality [pieces — and that's through] identification. In other words, if you get a photograph and you can identify the people on the photograph and why they are important .... the photograph comes to life."

(When Bernard talked about the young woman's tintype of an Union soldier and the whip the young man showed him, I thought about the 1952 voter's registration card belonging to my late great-grandmother, Viola Coleman Erving. My mother gave me the card years ago, when I returned to my Alexandria, LA, hometown after college and worked as a substitute teacher, newspaper reporter and social worker. My mother told me that during those days of Jim-Crow racial segregation, the voter registration office had black people wait in long lines everyday in an attempt to discourage them from voting.  Mama (my great grandmother) was repeatedly turned away, ostensibly because the polls closed before she had a chance to register. But every day, she would get up and once again walk from our neighborhood — the Sonia Quarters, the fourth-toughest black neighborhood in the city — to the voter registration office to try again. She did this every day until she finally received her voter's registration card.)

Shirley Kinsey said she always tells young people to start now interviewing their grandparents.

"With all this technology, they need to record their grandparents' stories ... so that this can become their history!" she said. "There are so many untold stories that our own families never know about. My uncle passed away in 1993, and he knew Zora Neal Hurston. He had letters from her to him. He knew Cab Calloway, Sarah Vaughn, and Jacob Lawrence. I never knew that, because I never asked those questions." Hurston's letters are in the exhibit.

When Americans fully appreciate the contribution of African Americans in the building of America, a lot of the barriers that have been erected will come down, Bernard Kinsey said.

"And that's why The Kinsey Collection is so important," he said. "What we want to say here is something you didn't know, because we didn't. Here's another way to look at this: We believe in the power of learning through information that will change how you think about [us] ... In other words, the only thing new is the history you do not know," he ended. 

Khalil Kinsey Interview

 

Khalil Kinsey

Khalil Kinsey also expounded on the importance of The Kinsey Collection. He noted that even with the success that the collection has enjoyed in the last 10 years — a success that is comparable to some of the most famous exhibits in the world — the Kinseys still sometimes face the challenge of having to sell themselves. They go where they are invited, he said,

Khalil spoke of  meeting Sericia Cole, former director of the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center, at a conference a few years ago. "She [asked me when would we] bring it to Little Rock? And I said I would love to have the conversation ... and here we are," Khalil noted. 

"We don't ever know what we are going to [walk] into ... in terms of some venues, and we have had some surprises. But the most part, the facilities are always great. We came here [last] November, and we were just blown away by the history of the museum and the permanent collection that highlights Arkansas Black history.

"We kind of live by the old Boy Scout saying: 'We want to leave the place better than we found it.' It doesn't mean it was a bad place. We just want to improve it, and shine a spotlight on it .... and we think the Mosaic Templars should be celebrated and highlighted in Little Rock and greater Arkansas. This is an outstanding facility. And it's been a pleasure being here."

The Kinsey Collection

I've seen some outstanding exhibits about black history across the country, but The Kinsey Collection is one of the most spectacular and impressive exhibits about the black experience I've ever seen. The spirits of the ancestors "spoke" to me throughout the time I toured the Kinsey's fantastic collection. I also had a sense of warmth and appreciation for what our ancestors did to make me the Pan Africanist and Africentrist I am today.

The collection was a remarkable display of "OUR HISTORY." It's a display that will make viewers feel elated and proud of the brothers and sisters who sacrificed their lives for Black America to carry out "Sankofa" — an Akan word from Ghana whose meaning, simply put, is "learning from the past and building the future."

I salute the mastery of the Kinseys in creating a black historical exhibit that will open the eyes of people who don't believe that BLACK PEOPLE stolen from the continent of Africa did not make a contribution to the building of America.

The Kinsey Collection:

Shared Treasures of Bernard and Shirley Kinsey

Where Art and History Intersect

The best way I can describe the book The Kinsey Collection: Shared Treasures of Bernard and Shirley Kinsey Where Art and History Intersect (The Bernard and Shirley Kinsey Foundation for Arts and Education, The Kinsey Collection & KBK ENT, Inc., ENT. Inc., Pacific Palisades, CA, 2013)  is that it's an immaculate black-history exhibit in book form.

This companion piece to the Kinsey collection should be viewed as a personal home exhibit for those who attended The Kinsey Collection. The artifacts, documents and letters and other material showcased in the book help capture the essence of black diasporan life in America.

As a History major, I will cherish this book for the rest of my life. It's a perfect gift to give to family and friends who missed a chance to see this amazing collection.