by Joyce Ann Hertzig, OP
The Dominican Sisters celebrate Black History Month by learning more about leaders in our community. Our Sisters and lay employees, members of our Campus Inclusion Team, reach out and research and interview Black leaders who have inspired them. They also discover new resources and places like museums, libraries, and arts that contribute to learning and greater understanding of one another.
During February, we will be sharing some of our favorite visionary and inspiring Black Americans.
Dr. David Pilgrim, Outstanding Teacher, Historian, Thought Leader
David Pilgrim grew up in Mobile and Prichard, Alabama in the 1960s.
He went to an all-black elementary school and a recently integrated middle school. Integration had its difficult moments. As a teen, he began collecting items that demeaned Black people.
Pilgrim attended Jarvis Christian College, a Black Disciples of Christ school, in Hawkins, Texas. While there, he understood that objects could be teaching tools when Professor O. C. Nix brought a chauffeur’s hat to class and asked the students to explain how the hat was representative of Jim Crow.
The answer was simple: During that time, many White people were upset when they saw a Black person driving a nice car. The chauffeur’s cap was a way of saying, “This is not my car. I know my place. I am not a threat to you.”
His collection of 3,000 artifacts became a start-up for the Jim Crow Museum at Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Michigan.
From its beginning in the early 1990s, Dr. Pilgrim used the museum to engage visitors: “What do you see? What does it mean? How might it impact others? These questions spark conversation which lead to further understanding of different realities. Thus, objects of intolerance serve to teach tolerance.”
Dr. Pilgrim, an applied sociologist who earned his PhD from Ohio State University, began as a sociology professor at Ferris. He founded the Jim Crow Museum and is now the vice president for Diversity, Inclusion, and Strategic Initiatives at Ferris State University. He is one of our country’s leading experts on issues relating to multiculturalism, diversity, and race relations.*
Today, as he guides the expansion of the Jim Crow Museum on the Ferris Campus**, set to open in Sept. 2026, Dr. Pilgrim says, “It requires courage to donate to an anti-racist project. One must believe in this work.”
After more than 50 years, who or what inspires you to continue anti-racism work? I asked Dr. Pilgrim.
“Being from the Deep South, I rely on my faith in God in dark times and everyday situations. My inspiration also comes from regular folks in conversations: a grandmother, a student inquirer, or a child with a question.”
In a presentation given March 27, 2024 at the Gerald R. Ford Museum in Grand Rapids, Dr. Pilgrim said,
“Americans like happy history, narratives that make us look smart, brave, and exceptional. We want a history that can be celebrated at picnics and parades. This approach to history is neither honest or mature.
Dr. David Pilgrim
“We have to move society further.”
- About Dr. David Pilgrim
- Museum Expansion 4-Minute Video
- David Pilgrim video presentation Gerald R Ford Museum, March 28, 2024, 1- hour
Learn more about the Jim Crow Museum at Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Michigan.
