News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
The Warren County Black History Museum is searching for a new home.
Museum Director Wayne Wolford Sr. said the museum’s first location opened its doors in spring of last year.
“Right now we don’t have a building but we have everything else that we need to get started. There are 13 members of the board, it’s a good group putting this together,” Wolford said. “Our main thing right now is just trying to find a facility here in Warren County to get started with.”
They left the museum’s previous location on Bernard Drive in Mcminnville due to leasing complications.
Some of the artifacts the board has collected are baseball equipment from black teams, photos, and documents from churches and schools. Wolford said they’re still slowly collecting.
Wolford said African-Americans are 1% of the Warren County population, and they don’t want any history to be lost.
“I went to the archives after I retired from the military, and that’s been over 24 years ago. I looked in the national archives and I couldn’t hardly find anything at all saying that we were basically here,” Wolford said. “So we’re going to put this together so future generations will have an idea of where they came from and where they’re going.”
He wrote a book about Warren’s black history, and has researched with the community for historical information for over 20 years.
“A lot of times you can’t start big, you have to have funds in order to start big. So we can start small, we will grow because of all the good people that are helping in the process,” Wolford said. “It will happen.”
The History Museum has a Facebook and are in the process of building a website.
