Dr. Carter G. Woodson is known as the father of Black History Month.

Here at the museum of his namesake, visitors can learn the history of African Americans in St. Petersburg and beyond.

This space also showcases current members of the community.

USF Professor Dr. Gary Lemons shares his abstract paintings in an exhibition called Touch in the Spirit of Love.

(catchy music) - The Woodson African American museum is housed in what was once Jordan Park Community Center.

Residents of Jordan Park decided late in the 1990s that they would forgo their community center so that we might have a space in the city of St. Petersburg that we're calling an African American museum.

(catchy music) - What can we go to celebrate the great scholar.

- Dr. Carter G. Woodson, a native of Virginia, was the second African American to graduate from Harvard University.

He was a historian whose passion drove him to preserve African American history.

In 1926, he started what was Negro History Week, and it wasn't until 1976 that we began celebrating Black History Month.

- He was a profound revolutionary educator, and he was one of those Black educators who was willing to stand up for the belief of social justice within an educational arena, to teach for liberation, and that's exactly what he did within an academic context.

I admire him so much to where the whole idea of naming a museum after him was about an archival representation.

Hold on to those Black folks who have changed your life and educated you to believe in African American Black history.

(gentle music) - There's so many talented African American artists who have very few places to showcase their extraordinary works.

We currently have on display the works of Dr. Gary Lemons, and we are excited to host this fabulous array of work.

(gentle music) - As an undergraduate student many, many years ago, I was a studio art and English major, so I combined my study of literature with my practice of art.

And even though I was trained as a realist, I started to think about painting from a graphic design standpoint and my connection to African ancestry.

And from an abstractionist standpoint, I use patterns of African designs and colors and intermingle those together in the representation of whatever the thematics are that I want to focus on in my paintings.

- A body of work created by Dr. Lemons that he introduced me to, I found extraordinary.

The missing element of the human touch during the time of COVID, and he came up with this body of work where we are reaching out and we're touching, but more importantly in his works of art, they're mirrors so that we see ourselves and become a reflection of that spirit of love and the need and the desire to touch.

- It came to my mind, even though we have to be supportive of each other health-wise in the pandemic separated, but what about in a spiritually rich context of love where these hands could be still reaching to touch each other in the spirit of love?

- This magnificent moment.

Since 2016, the city of St. Petersburg has rose a flag in honor of Dr. Carter Jean Woodson, celebrating Black History Month in a way that it's not celebrated anywhere else in the country.

City Hall for the entire month of February.

(audience applauding) - Okay, we'll raise the flag now.

(upbeat music) - The Carter G. Woodson Museum is a center place for gathering not only the Black community, but the entire community of St. Petersburg as we seek to uplift the history and learn from it so that we can go and do better and create a beloved community.

- This is an inclusive city.

We are St. Pete, so that acknowledgement is important on an ongoing basis.

- African American museums are locations that represent more than spaces where art is displayed.

They become hubs for community and sharing the stories and passion of the voiceless so often.

We continue to embrace our space and elevating Black history and its culture 365 days out of the year.

(upbeat music) - To learn more, visit woodsonmuseum.org.