CLARKSBURG, W.Va. (WBOY) — If you’ve been looking for a way to celebrate and honor Black History Month this year, the Clarksburg History Museum has a special exhibit available all month long.
The exhibit was created by Catherine Burley, who has been collecting items of historical significance for decades and has been sharing her Black history collecting in the area for the last 10 years.
Originally from Baltimore, Burley moved to West Virginia for work and after retiring she now works as a resource coordinator for the Kelly Miller Community Center and also sets up exhibits around the area, including a recent one in observation of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
“I’m very proud of my heritage, and I like to share, anytime I can. ….Anytime I can share my history, which is American history, it’s not just my history,” said Burley.
Items at the exhibit depict Black history from 1619 all the way until present day including the impact of the Black church, Black leaders and Black inventors who created popular items. Even though this is not her first year doing an exhibit at the museum, Burley said she received pushback from her community.
“I got a lot of feedback from the Black community, asked me not to do this this year. Because of the Confederate stuff in the museum. But what I told them was, ‘If one person come through here and I communicate with them, they see and learn something,’ that’s you know. I just can’t—that’s history also,” said Burley.
Burley said she experienced culture shock when she first moved to West Virginia, which included seeing several Confederate flags and the reactions of people when she brought up her concerns about it.
“To them, they said it was a proud thing. And to me, and I said, ‘Well that’s not what it means to me.’ And they couldn’t understand like I said, that was a war for slavery. And that’s what I feel like it’s hateful for me. But I just think you got to communicate, it’s the key,” Burley said.
The museum’s curator, Marsha Viglianco said she was very excited to have Burley’s exhibit and gave her the ability to spread out and take the space needed.
“The museum likes to celebrate all different kind of cultures, and themes and we work closely with the Black community and we’ve done other things with them before and Cathy Burley has an absolutely marvelous exhibit,” Viglianco said.
Viglianco told 12 News that the Black history exhibit is very limited and although there are no current plans for Burley’s exhibit to be a permanent fixture in the museum, Viglianco encourages community members to donate items to add to it as the museum operates from donated items.
A reception for the exhibit is scheduled for Feb. 17 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and features a chance for visitors to speak with Burley in person.
