By Dave Johnson
W&M Athletics
 
It's been a few years since Erin Dickerson Davis cracked a history textbook, but she remembers much of what was included. She also remembers what wasn't.

"There are things as an adult I'm still learning," said Davis, who is in her first season as women's basketball coach at William & Mary. "Until George Floyd (murdered by a police officer in 2020) and everyone using their voice against injustice, that was the first time I heard of Black Wall Street.

"I didn't learn about that as a young 'un in history class. I think we're all still learning. And it's important we're all open minded to what we see."

The first week of January, the Tribe had a rare seven-day break between games. Davis decided it would be a good idea to take her team into Washington, D.C., to visit the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
 
The museum, which opened in 2016, is 10 stories high. The exhibits take up five of them. There are more than 40,000 artifacts, including a rare photo of Harriet Tubman, Emmett Till's glass-topped casket, and a pair of Muhammad Ali's boxing gloves.

There are also materials from a 1921 massacre of Black residents in the Greenwood District — a.k.a. Black Wall Street — of Tulsa, Okla.

"We thought it would be a really cool idea to take them to the museum so they could learn about the African American experience as we go into Black History Month," Davis said. "It was good to be able to create that for them."

Sophomore Dani McTeer and junior Kayla Beckwith had been to the museum multiple times but still came away knowing more than they did the day before.

"That was my third time, and every time, you learn something different because that museum is huge," said McTeer, who is from Hampton, VA. "I feel like every time I go, I never get to finish it. I always start on the first floor, and every time you see that floor, it's unbelievable.

"A lot of people don't learn that in school. Slavery's effect from the colonial days all the way until now, different things like that … it's an experience."

It was also the third trip for Beckwith, who is from Laurel, MD, just outside D.C.

"There's no such thing as going to the museum too many times," she said. "My first two times, I was excited to see the upper levels where the sports and music exhibits were because it obviously doesn't cut as deep.

"I didn't think I was ready to read all the exhibits on the first floor, so I tried to rush to get to the second and third floors. But this time with my teammates, I took the time to read and really explore the first floor. It was really touching."
  Senior guard Chaniqwa Gilliam also found the bottom floors difficult.

"It was very, very heavy, very difficult to walk through," she said. "I had learned some of those topics in school, but reliving it all, to see it all right in front of you, it was definitely a lot. I definitely have to go back on my free time."

Junior forward Caitlin Wingertzahn was particularly moved by the exhibit on Emmett Till, a 14-year-old boy who was abducted, tortured and lynched by white men in 1955.

"One of the things they had was a picture of his face after he had been mauled because his mom wanted to have an open casket so people could see what was happening," she said.  "That sent me to tears.

"Although you learn stuff when you're younger, you should also try to learn about it when you grow up because you'll have a different perspective. Like, you know slavery is bad when you're younger, but as you get older, you see the actual impact. As you continue to grow as a person, it's really important to have those conversations."
  That's what the National Museum of African American History and Culture is all about. Many of the exhibits are powerful, many are disturbing, and many are both. All of them are informative, especially those not included in K-12 textbooks.

"It's very easy to get swallowed up on that first floor because it's very difficult," Davis said. "Then, as you rise up the floors, it goes into the African American experience with music and dance. It's not all just this sad history of Black Americans. There's a lot of that, but there's also triumph and happiness.

"It's a rollercoaster of emotions, that's for certain. But I think we all need that. It can't just be a discussion that comes up when something happens that makes the news. It's something that needs to be a constant conversation."