Here in East Baltimore stands a museum unlike any other on Earth, entirely devoted to African American history and achievement. The Great Blacks in Wax Museum was founded in 1983 by Dr. Elmer and Joanne Martin, an African American couple who had grown up in Baltimore and saw a need for a museum that would present Black history to children in vivid, immediate, human terms. The museum began with eleven wax figures and has grown to include over 100 life-size figures ranging from Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman to Thurgood Marshall, Malcolm X, and Rosa Parks.
The exhibits are designed to cover the full sweep of African American history, from the ancient African civilizations to the Civil Rights Movement and beyond. A replica slave ship in the lower level recreates the conditions of the Middle Passage with an immediacy that no textbook can match. The museum draws over 100,000 visitors per year and has been particularly significant in providing Baltimore's school-age population with role models and historical context from their own heritage.
The Great Blacks in Wax has spawned similar museums in other cities and influenced how African American history is presented in mainstream institutions. Baltimore's African American community has deep historical roots — the city was home to Frederick Douglass's childhood, to the first Black lawyer to argue before the Supreme Court, and to the NAACP's longest-serving director, Benjamin Hooks.