THOMASVILLE — The Jack Hadley Black History Museum will celebrate the grand opening of the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, September 24. 

The Jack Hadley Black History Museum will join with the NMAAHC to showcase and honor the work of all institutions around the country, the NMAAHC and individuals preserving, honoring and sharing the many stories of African American and African Diaspora people. 

“This is history in the making to have a National Museum of African American History and Culture in our nation’s capital,” said Hadley. 

The Jack Hadley Black History Museum will be open Saturday from 11 a.m.-3 p.m. as part of “Lift Every Voice — Celebrating African American History and Culture Across the Nation,” celebrating African American history and culture in Thomasville and showing how the organization documents, preserves and exhibits the local history as part of the national story.

The museum is offering special and reduced prices Saturday, at $2.50 for adults and $1.50 for students.

“We always welcome donations to help our museum’s mission and keep the doors open for our children and future generations to come,” Hadley said. “We also inform the nation about the great work we are doing here in Thomas County/Thomasville, Georgia and Southwest Georgia. That is celebrating African American history and culture here in Thomasville, ‘The City of Roses.’”

Hadley also expressed thanks to President George W. Bush, who signed HR 3491 authorizing the National Museum of African American History and Culture Act on December 16, 2003. This act authorizes the creation of a Smithsonian Institution museum dedicated to the legacy of African American in America.

He also thanked U.S. Rep. John Lewis (D-Atlanta),who was a sponsor of the bill for over 15 years for “persistence and consistency.”

Board members for the National Museum of African American History and Culture include Oprah Winfrey, Quincy Jones, Bob Johnson, Richard Parsons, and Linda Johnson Rice, among others. The museum director, Lonnie Bunch, has begun building a collection for the museum and has purchased the Bible used by John Brown, who mounted the Harper’s Ferry Raid; one of the planes used by the Tuskegee Airmen; and a shawl worn by Harriet Tubman.

President Obama helped break ground for the building on February 22, 2012. Construction was completed in April 2016.

The NMAAHC will be exhibiting more than 39,000 African American artifacts that have been collected from across the nation since the executive act was signed in 2003 by President Bush.

Hadley and his wife Chris are charter members of the NMAAHC. Their children and grandchildren are planning to meet them in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 24, to celebrate Hadley’s 80th birthday as a special occasion for him to be an eyewitness to this historical event.

The Jack Hadley Black History Museum has exhibits on Lt. Henry Ossian Flipper, the Buffalo Soldiers and Tuskegee Airmen. Each exhibit tells the story on how these men made an impact on America. On a visit to the museum, you will also witness other great African American men and women and children who gave their life to make this country a free and loving country we so enjoy daily.

“Please bring your children, friends and guests. We know you will leave this museum with more knowledge then what you had before entering,” Hadley added.

Special exhibits highlighted Saturday at the Museum are:

• Lt. Henry Ossian Flipper— born a slave in Thomasville in 1856, he was the first black to graduate from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1877;

• Buffalo Soldiers — were sent out west to help and protect the pioneers as they opened and settled in the Midwest in 1867.

• Kathy Williams — the woman in the Buffalo Soldiers, disguised herself as a man. She’s the first documented woman to be in the military.

Tuskegee Airmen — Opened the doors for President Truman to integrate the military, and it took President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s wife Eleanor to fly in a P-51 plane with a black pilot to prove to the white generals that blacks were just as good as white pilots to fly these planes.The Jack Hadley Black History Museum has five sets of packaged Buffalo Soldiers prints of various sizes, available from El Paso, Texas, artist Bob Snead’s collection he has donated to the museum as a fundraising campaign to help the museum operations. Each package contains five prints valued at $750 and his promotion sale/donation for the museum is $150 per set until Dec. 31. 

The Jack Hadley Black History Museum is at 214 Alexander St. in Thomasville. For more information, call (229) 226-5029 or email jackhadleyblackhistorymuseum@rose.net.