On October 6th, Dr. Aaron Chandler took a group of students to the Reginald F. Lewis Museum in Baltimore, MD. Reginald F. Lewis was the first African American to build a billion-dollar company. He was well known for his philanthropic endeavours such as establishing the Reginald F. Lewis Foundation and imense donations to the Howard Law School, which later renamed its international law school after him. During his illness he made it known that he wished to support a museum of African American culture. The museum is dedicated to being the best source of information about African American Marylanders. They feature exhibits from the earliest history of African Americans in Maryland all the way to the present and projections into the future.
The students that participated in the trip took a tour of the museum, learning about Lewis’ life and the business that led him to becoming the first black billionaire. One student, Jordan Mitchell, said that her favorite exhibit was the Hateful Things exhibit. The exhibit features items throughout history that have been racially marketed, such as skin whitening products, racially charged children’s stories, and minstrel shows. The thing that surprised her the most was the dates that some of these were recovered. Many of the things that were on display came from the 1990’s and early 2000’s.