Bring Back 6th Mobile Museum
Team: Ayaan Natala, Jessie Merriam, Angel Swann, Jade Ryerson, Carissa Thomas, Hibaa Roba, HSPH students; Greg Donofrio, Juliet Burba, Dr. Ernest Lloyd, co-instructor and community advisers
Program: Heritage Studies and Public History (HSPH)
The Bring Back 6th Mobile Museum exhibition premiered on May 15th 2022, at an outdoor festival sponsored by our partner organization, Our Streets Minneapolis. Created by six graduate students in the Heritage Studies and Public History program, the exhibition included seven panels detailing the little-known history of the thriving Black and Jewish neighborhood that once existed on 6th Avenue North. From the 1930s to the 1950s, “the Avenue” was destroyed to create Olson Memorial Highway. Tightly-packed with businesses and homes in the early 20th century, it was the center of North Minneapolis’ Black community and a heart of the city’s Jazz music scene. Prince’s father played in clubs there, among other renowned musicians. The road that replaced it—what newspapers called the city’s first “super-highway”—is now a wide, uninviting swath of asphalt and half-dead trees that serves as a racial dividing line.
The exhibition was designed with twin goals: 1) reveal the racist motivations for routing the highway through this corridor; and 2) provide a vision for a vibrant, walkable, welcoming neighborhood by demonstrating what had been there in the past. The exhibition received the “Best Student Project Award” from the National Council on Public History in February 2024.
Keywords: racism, displacement, highway, public history
Funders: Mellon Foundation
Other Collaborators: Our Streets Minneapolis
