PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A Germantown veterans museum is celebrating service members of color this Black History Month by displaying a newly-acquired piece recently donated to their collection.
“Some of the things we have here are nowhere else in the world,” said Dr. Althea Hankins, who founded ACES Veterans Museum on Germantown Avenue in 2000.
The museum is located in Parker Hall, the building where the original Black USO was created during World War II.
“This is a site dedicated to preserving the history of these people that created a Black USO because they weren’t welcome in white USOs, but they still fought,” Hankins said. “They still acted on hope with all races, creeds and colors.”
Year-round, the museum honors the accomplishments of Black and minority veterans, but this month the museum is adding something new to represent Afro-Latino soldiers.
“We got a gold congressional medal donated to us by Latin American Post 840 of Philadelphia, so they’re going to be acknowledged,” Hankins said.
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Hankins explained that the World War II medal helps the museum tell the layered story of the Black and brown American experiences with pride, in the name of democracy.
“These people, from the Tuskegee Airmen to the Puerto Ricans, fought for the concept of all men being created equal,” Hankins added.
“That’s what we believe.”
Museum’s mission involves getting kids invested in their future by teaching history
Hankins said the museum is just as committed to the future as it is the past. She said the increase in gun violence in Philly is partly a result of the city’s youth not being educated on their true history.
“A month doesn’t go by that someone isn’t shot or killed. They’re dying of gunshots and violence,” Hankins said.
She believes education can be the cure, so the museum is focusing on teaching Germantown youth that Black heroes exist on more than movie screens and comic books, but also in American history.
“If you can excite kids to stay in school, you can get them to see that there is a whole lot more than fighting over a pair of shoes, let alone getting shot for it,” Hankins said.
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She added that knowing your past can help secure your future.
“We believe history is a social vaccine, especially when they see these real heroes,” Hankins said.
“Respect the past. Nurture the future.”
ACES Veterans Museum is open every Monday through Thursday from noon to 4 p.m.