Blue Star Museums, a collaboration among the National Endowment for the Arts, Blue Star Families, the Department of Defense, and more than 2,000 museums across America to offer free admission to the nation’s active duty military personnel including National Guard and Reserve and their families from Armed Forces Day, May 18, through Labor Day, September 2, 2019.

The Jack Hadley Black History Museum is one of more than 2,000 museums across America to offer free admission to military personnel and their families this summer in collaboration with the National Endowment for the Arts, Blue Star Families, and the Department of Defense. In accordance with NEA, more than 900,000 military families visited the museums in 2018. This year, the NEA is striving for 1 million visitors.

Jack Hadley, the museum president/curator, said the museum is  opening its doors free to first responders, (including police officers, sheriff’s deputies, firefighters, paramedics, and rescuers), and veterans and their families in this program for the third time in 2019.  

For local first responders and veterans and their families, the Jack Hadley Black History Museum is asking community businesses to help sponsor them. 

“We hope our military families and our Veterans and First Responders families will take advantage of the free admission to the museum during Armed Forces Day to Labor Day,” Hadley said.

Armed Forces Day was established in 1949 under President Harry S. Truman for citizens to come together and thank military members for their patriotic service in support of the  country. This program is available for those currently serving in the U.S. military —  Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard as well as members of the Reserves, National Guard, U.S. Public Health Commissioned Corps, NOAA Commissioned Corps, and up to five family members. In Washington, D.C., the National Endowment for the Arts and Blue Star Families are pleased to announce that first lady of the United States Melania Trump and second lady of the United States Karen Pence have agreed to serve as honorary co-chairs of Blue Star Museums 2019. Blue Star Museums is a collaboration among the National Endowment for the Arts, Blue Star Families, the Department of Defense.

This year is a year of continued celebration for the Jack Hadley Black History Museum and its constituents. It is the 13th anniversary of the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the opening of the first African American museum in southwest Georgia and north Florida in its present location in 2006 in a 5,600 square foot building at  the Douglass High School Alumni Association’s grounds, in the Dewey City Historic District.. 

It is the eighth year that the Jack Hadley Black History Museum has participated with the Blue Star Museum program. 

Hadley said he knows what it’s like not to have free events such as the Blue Star program to visit. These events did not happen in his 28 years serving in the U.S. Air Force from 1956-84. In the 1950s and ’60s, as an African American family, you had to search for your own outside enjoyment for your family, to include looking for an African American hotel to stay overnight. “The Negro Travelers’ Green Book” identified all the hotels, to include the Imperial Hotel, located at 738 West Jackson St., here in Thomasville, which today the Jack Hadley Black History Museum now owns, where blacks could get some rest and relaxation. 

We are very thankful to Thomasville Landmarks, Inc., and the Williams Family Charitable Foundations, who made this possible,” Hadley said. “As an African American military family, once you left the military base, you had very little events in the community you could take your families to.”

The Jack Hadley Black History Museum documents, preserves, and exhibits African American artifacts of historical significance of Southwest Georgia and educates its audiences on African American history and culture.

Today, the Jack Hadley Black History Museum now holds more than 5,059 African American artifacts in its collection, serving as the information highway through the African American experience and success. 

“We are busy adding to our permanent collection that now includes historical and cultural artifacts that range from, the continent of Africa, African-American artifacts dating back to slavery,” Hadley said.

The museum recently obtained a set of child ankle shackle chains used on children in 1841, an addition of 27 Jim Crow and caricature dolls displayed in the Jim Crow era section from 1870 to 1960 in deep South ; the Buffalo Soldiers; blacks in the military from the Spanish-American War to Desert Storm/Iraq/Afghanistan wars; blacks in all phases of government and civilian life (locally and nationally). “Military families, we are excited to open our doors free for you to come and bring your families,” Hadley said. “We hold a military and first responders collections that share your experience that your family need to see.”

The museum continues to serve as an extended classroom to the local school systems’ students. They take advantage of the JHBHM museum’s immense collection through tours and research projects, i.e. Florida A&M University, Bainbridge College, Southern Regional Technical College, Thomas University, Albany State University, and Individual students from around the U.S. 

More than 3,000 students and adults visited the museum in 2018. Many were military families traveling through Thomasville and some living in the surrounding communities.

“We have witnessed groups of all ages enter the gallery spaces with zeal and dynamism,” Hadley said. “Our museum has the collection that can lift the history out of the textbooks and place it directly in front of the students with the dynamics of the seven learning styles —visual, pictures and images; aural, music and sounds; linguistic, documents, books, verbal; and kinesthetic, historical objects and relics. We are well positioned to help teachers and parents educate students by having resources that educators may not be able to access in any other location.”

For the Jack Hadley Black History Museum, military, free admission program is available to any bearer of a Geneva Convention common access card (CAC), a DD Form 1173 ID card (dependent ID), or a DD Form 1173-1 ID card, which includes active duty U.S. military – Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, as well as members of the National Guard and Reserve, U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, NOAA Commissioned Corps – and up to five family members. Some special or limited-time museum exhibits may not be included in this free admission program. For first responders and veterans, show your duty badge or VA ID card. For questions on particular exhibits or museums, please contact the museum directly.

For more information on the Jack Hadley Black History Museum, its military history programs and others, and the Blue Star Museum program, contact the museum at (229) 226-5029. You can view a full calendar on Blue Star events at the Jack Hadley black History Museum’s website: www.jackhadleyblackhistorymsuem.com. Jack Hadley Black History Museum is located at 214 Alexander Street in Thomasville and again a complete list of participating museums is available at www.arts.gov/bluestarmuseums. 

This year, more than 2,000 museums and counting in all 50 states, and the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and American Samoa are taking part in the initiative. Museums are welcome to join Blue Star Museums throughout the summer. The effort to recruit museums has involved partnerships with the American Alliance of Museums, the Association of Art Museum Directors, the Association of Children’s Museums, the American Association of State and Local History, and the Association of Science-Technology Centers. This year’s Blue Star Museums represent not just fine arts museums, but also science museums, history museums, nature centers, and dozens of children’s museums.

To find participating museums and plan your trip, visit arts.gov/bluestarmuseums.

All summer long, Blue Star Museums will share stories through social media. Follow Blue Star Museums on Twitter @NEAarts and @BlueStarFamily, #bluestarmuseums, on Facebook, and read the NEA Art Works blog for weekly stories on participating museums and exhibits.