California African American Museum

The California African American Museum (CAAM) is a museum located in Exposition Park, Los Angeles, California, United States. The museum focuses on enrichment and education on the cultural heritage and history of African Americans with a focus on California and western United States. Admission is free to all visitors. Their mission statement is "to research, collect, preserve, and interpret for public enrichment the history, art and culture of African Americans with an emphasis on California and the western United States." CAAM hosts independent and collaborative educational programs both on and off site of lectures, workshops, innovative programs, and hands-on activities that serve public and private school students, museum patrons and community visitors. History CAAM was chartered by the State of California in 1977 and first opened in 1981, in temporary quarters at the California Museum of Science and Industry (now the nearby California Science Center). The museum's first director was arts advocate Aurelia Brooks, while the first object acquired for CAAM's permanent collection was a magnificent bronze bust of civil rights activist Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune, created by Richmond Barthé. In 1984, CAAM moved to its permanent home in Exposition Park, just south of Downtown Los Angeles. The inaugural exhibition The Black Olympians 1904-1984 was curated by CAAM's History Curator Lonnie Bunch, who would subsequently become the founding director of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.