Embracing Public History
The increasing number of Black history museums provides an alternative to the "publish or perish" environment of academia.

If you really want to understand the difference between having a career as a traditional university-based historian and working in a public history setting such as a museum, think abut this," says Dr. Elizabeth Clark-Lewis. "At some time in their careers, most academic historians reach a point where they stop and worry whether anyone outside of a very small circle of scholars and graduate students will ever really care about their articles or publications. However, when you meet a family who has driven miles to visit a museum exhibit for the third time because it has a photo of their great-uncle, you realize that public history really can touch ordinary people's lives. And this is particularly true for Black people who are hungry to have their historical experiences publicly acknowledged."

Lewis is director of the Public History Program at Howard University, which offers master's and doctorates in history with special emphasis on preparing students to move beyond the narrow confines of the academic world and toward careers in institutions —such as museums, archives and, sometimes, government agencies — that are concerned with a wider audience than simply students and professors.
"In fact," she adds, "we train our students to work as historians in everywhere else but universities."
Lewis also says that although working outside a college setting may feel very new to some historians, it's actually back to the future for African American scholars.
"Think about Carter G. Woodson," Lewis says. "He had impeccable academic credentials, including a Ph.D. in history from Harvard. However, after a relatively brief stint of teaching at Howard University, he embraced public history and made it his career for the rest of his life, lecturing in grammar schools, churches, libraries and many other places outside of the academic ivory towers."
Some historians are entering the field of public history and museum studies because they are excited at the prospect of trying to bring their research and ideas to a much wider segment of society. But there are also more practical reasons. Men and women who get civil service jobs at city, state or federal agencies enjoy a lot more job security than untenured junior faculty. Equally important, the number of new jobs in museums and other public history venues is growing.
For example, there have been no private Black universities or colleges opened in the last several decades. And since the 1980s, very few new public colleges have opened in minority communities. At the same time, the number of museums that are in minority communities, or are dedicated to specific people of color, or concerned with important topics in African American or ethnic history have dramatically increased since 1976, when America's bicentennial triggered a tremendous interest in community history. Here is just a small sample of new institutions being planned.