Warren Black History Museum Joins Network

The Black History Museum of Warren County has been accepted into the African American Civil Rights Network.

Museum Director James Gwynn said he discovered the network when researching grants to help fund the museum. Gwynn said the museum is now one of two museums in the state of Tennessee that are a part of the network.

“We didn’t have the marches and we didn’t have bombings and things of that nature,” Gwynn said. “So it also allows them to realize that yes, Warren County did indeed play a part in the civil rights movement even though it was a little remote from Warren County itself.”

The museum displays artifacts of Carl T. Rowan, a McMinnville native who graduated from Bernard High School in 1942 and served as a civil rights journalist documenting the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Gwynn said he hopes that being part of the network will give the museum more exposure.

“We are hoping that it’s going to give us some more notoriety so that it will bring more visitors to our museum and see the works of Carl Rowan and hear about his story,” Gwynn said.

The African American Civil Rights Network is part of the National Parks Service. Gwynn said joining the network will also allow the museum to apply for more grants to help move the museum to a new location.

“It will also open up an opportunity through the National Parks Service for us to possibly qualify for some grants and federal funding as we try to move from our current location to a larger location,” Gwynn said.  “So that we can tell these stories in a facility that is more conducive to be a museum.”

Gwynn said the museum plans to use the credential in advertising the museum on its website and at various conventions the museum attends. The museum also contains various items from the past. The museum is housed in the old McMinnville clinic. Gwynn said the museum is a civil rights museum but also like a time machine where people can see items from the past.