Great Blacks

When a visitor descends into the depths of the Great Blacks in Wax Museum to take a look at its exhibit on lynching, the first sound often is silence.Then follow words like: "Oh, my God."Here is the lynching of Hayes and Mary Turner, re-created with life-size figures and oversized horror. Billie Holiday sings "Strange Fruit," a song about lynching, softly in the background.On a sweltering August day, in an East Baltimore neighborhood better known for decrepitude and drug-selling than tourism, a sea of children in the matching T-shirts of summer camp come from as far as New Jersey and New York to see searing images like these at Great Blacks in Wax.Now, with a large new Maryland African-American History museum planned for the heart of Baltimore's tourist district, the founders of the first black wax museum in the country are wondering just what their future will hold.

Late this month, Baltimore will begin an ambitious plan to attract more visitors to the waterfront. The plan, called the National Historic Seaport of Baltimore, involves linking sites by water taxi. Visitors will be able to see all of them for a single, discounted rate.While the undertaking is intended to help define the harbor's future, it could be haunted by a nagging question from Baltimore's recent past: Why do some museums succeed and others fail?The question is relevant because one linchpin of the Historic Seaport will be a new museum near Fells Point devoted to African-American maritime and shipbuilding history.

Mission: To stimulate an interest in African-American history by revealing the often-neglected facts of history; to use great leaders as role models to motivate youth; to improve race relations by dispelling myths of racial inferiority; and to support and work in conjunction with other nonprofit, charitable organizations seeking to improve the social and economic status of African-Americans. The museum - the first wax museum in Baltimore and the first in the nation dedicated to African-Americans - was established in 1983 by Drs. Elmer and Joanne Martin.

Dec. 26: Kwanzaa Celebration. Benefits Great Blacks in Wax Museum. Variety of entertainment, hors d'oeuvres, nonalcoholic drinks, gifts for children under age 12. Great Blacks in Wax Museum, 1601 E. North Ave. 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Tickets at the door $5, $3 under 12. Call 410-522-9547.Dec. 26: "Christmas Extravaganza" black-tie ball. Benefits Baltimore Chapter of Continental Societies. Open bar, buffet dinner, dancing. Martin's West, 6817 Dogwood Road. 7 p.m. to midnight. Tickets $55. Call 410-788-1313 or 410-486-7989.

A young docent finds confidence, and confusion, at the 0) Great Blacks in Wax MuseumHe knows they are wax. Five days a week, he sees the figures standing motionless and eloquent. He knows they are wax. But the stories the figures tell are so powerful that sometimes their images follow him home, turning his dreams into nightmares.William Redmond is 12 years old. Tuesdays through Thursdays for the past three summers, he has worked as a volunteer at the Great Blacks in Wax Museum interpreting exhibits, selling snowballs at the stand in front of the museum and working in the gift shop.

In the dim light, the first thing you see is a white slave trader tugging on a iron collar encircling a black woman's neck. He is pulling her closer so that he can brand her bare shoulder.You recoil, even though you know the life-size figures are wax. And you realize that this is not going to be your ordinary museum experience.This is the Great Blacks in Wax Museum, in a renovated fire station on the 1600 block of North Avenue. Rowhouses, some boarded up, surround the building. To the west sits the Eastern District Courthouse, a liquor store and a medical supply business.

Neighborhood and business leaders took a long and wide view of Baltimore yesterday -- all by motor coach.It was a tour with a point: to help produce a comprehensive master plan for the city's residential and economic life in the 21st century.Beginning at Memorial Stadium and taking a counterclockwise path through Lauraville's bungalow-lined streets to the industrial brownfields off the Patapsco River, Baltimore Planning Department staff and citizen representatives observed a city that is both flourishing and, in places, withering.

Retired Army Gen. Colin L. Powell, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has been immortalized in East Baltimore.The Great Blacks in Wax Museum, the nation's first African-American wax museum, unveiled yesterday a life-sized likeness of the four-star general during a ceremony attended by Powell, his wife, Alma, and other dignitaries, including Maryland's U.S. Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes, U.S. Rep. Elijah E. Cummings and Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke."

It's a black thing. It's a Jewish thing. And the goal is understanding.In the fall, 27 students from Northwestern High School in Baltimore City and Beth Tfiloh Community School in Pikesville explored the common aspects of African-Amercian and Jewish experience in a course at Baltimore Hebrew University. Entitled "Keeping the Faith," the course surveys the history and culture of both groups.A chartered bus picks the students up and returns them to their respective high schools. Students receive three college credits for successfully completing the course.

Baltimore can claim a rich black history. Before the Civil War, it had the largest population of free African-Americans of any urban center in this country. Its black churches, neighborhoods, schools stretch back for generations.Black History Month, which begins tomorrow, places this cultural heritage in the spotlight. Many Baltimoreans, however, don't know their own city. For those who'd like to learn more about its African-American history, here's a suggested tour of shrines the city toasts this month.

Grandparents as Parents set to meet Sept. 10 Grandparents As Parents, a support group for grandparents raising their grandchildren, will meet from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. Sept. 10 at the Bain Center, 5470 Ruth Keeton Way, Columbia. The discussion topic is "Helping Your Child Succeed in School." Free child care is provided; reservations are required. The group offers information on services and financial assistance and an opportunity to meet other grandparents raising children. Information: 410-313-1940.

Joanne Martin sat across from me yesterday morning at the Great Blacks In Wax Museum. I held my head in my hands, mumbling something no doubt incoherent about what I'd like to do to distributors of rap videos. "I've had people come to this museum from around the world who tell me their only exposure to African-Americans is through rap videos," Martin said. "I had a group of people from London tell me that; I had a group of people from Russia tell me that; I had a group of people from Egypt tell me that."

Open mike At Great Blacks in Wax Museum Tonight at 7, head to the Great Blacks in Wax Museum, 1601 E. North Ave., for "3rd Thursday," an open-mike poetry/short sto ry event. Jonathan Gordon is the host. Admission is $3 for adults and free for children 12 and younger. Call 410-594-1818 for more information. FYI Kevin Cowherd is on as signment. His column does not ap pear today.

Jazz and Blues Festival Celebrate Father's Day in Federal Hill, which is holding its fifth annual Jazz and Blues Festival on Sunday. Charles Street and Cross Street will be abuzz with the fusion of jazz and instrumental Latin dance music of the Rumba Club, as well as the tunes of at least 15 other groups, including Greg Hatza ORGANization, Robert Lighthouse, the Melvin Sparks Band, mofofunka, the Jaws, Sophisticated Otis, Old Man Brown, Chris Jacobs in...

In Baltimore City School board OKs salary increases for lowest-paid workers The Baltimore school board approved labor contracts yesterday with two unions that grant a 5 percent raise over two years to some of the school system's lowest-paid employees. The approval came after more than a year of negotiations with American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 44, the union that represents janitors, bus drivers, groundskeepers and food-service workers. The other contract approved by the board was with the City Union of Baltimore, which represents clerical staff and school police officers.

WASHINGTON - Education and outreach programs at the Great Blacks in Wax Museum in East Baltimore got a boost last night when the U.S. Senate, as expected, approved a measure that would pour $5 million into the cultural center's coffers. The House approved this week an identical bill to help expand civil rights and violence-prevention initiatives at the nation's first wax museum honoring African-Americans. Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski and Rep. Elijah E. Cummings introduced the National Great Black Americans Commemoration Act of 2003, which would add Justice Department money to state, city and private funds aimed at expanding exhibits, facilities and programs at the Baltimore museum, which drew 220,000 visitors last year.

QUOTE OF THE DAY "There were more failures of intelligence on his watch as director of the CIA than any other ... in our history." Sen. Richard C. Shelby, an Alabama Republican, on the tenure of George J. Tenet (Article, Page 1A) NATIONAL CIA director resigns post CIA Director George J. Tenet, battered by 9/11 fallout and criticism of Iraq intelligence mistakes, said he would resign, an announcement that threw open a key position at a critical time in the war on terrorism. [Page 1a]

A major expansion of a museum that honors African-American history and, in part, celebrates tearing down the walls of segregation began yesterday when the first crumbly wall came down to make way for construction. Sitting in the seat of a piece of heavy construction equipment, Mayor Martin O'Malley operated a giant metal arm that took a bite out of the first of 48 East Baltimore buildings that are being torn down to make way for the expansion of the Great Blacks in Wax Museum. The museum attracts a quarter-million visitors a year with its wax figures of great leaders, inventors and religious figures, as well as scenes from the slavery and segregation eras.

The Great Blacks in Wax Museum, which attracts a quarter-million visitors a year to its scenes of inspiring and troubling periods of African-American history, is planning a $60 million expansion that could help revitalize a blighted section of North Avenue. The museum at 1603 E. North Ave. in Baltimore would grow eightfold, to about 120,000 square feet, adding more exhibits, a library, a parking lot and perhaps a place where visitors could eat lunch, said Joanne Martin, co-founder and president of the museum.

Anne Arundel County school officials called off most field trips yesterday, including those to Baltimore and Washington, in response to terrorism concerns. Other destinations that were banned until further notice included airports, federal installations, nuclear facilities and public utilities, according to a memo issued by the administration to school principals. Future international field trips also were canceled. Earlier this week, officials called off a North County High School trip to London for a group of tourism academy students.