When the African American Museum of Southern Arizona opened its doors — or “cut the ribbon” — on Jan. 14 in the University of Arizona Student Union, co-founders Bob and Beverely Elliott hoped that 70 people would show up.
“One guy even said, ‘This is like being at the post office around Christmas time; just take a number and wait,’” said Bob Ellliott, a former star basketball player at the UA.
Since then, nearly 40 schools and senior groups from across Arizona — including Phoenix, Flagstaff and Yuma — have signed up to tour the 1,100-square-foot museum dedicated to Black history, the first of its kind in Arizona.
Beverely Elliott, one of the museum founders, talks about placement of historical paintings with UA facilities management staff at the African American Museum of Southern Arizona inside the University of Arizona Student Union on Oct. 28, 2022.
The inspiration behind the museum? A first-grader “doing the pandemic thing” and working on a virtual school project during Black History Month in 2021. Bob and Beverely Elliott’s 7-year-old grandson, Jody, now 9, was assigned to do a history report on a Black hero. Jody “overheard me talking to some friends about a museum I had been working with back in Michigan,” said Beverely, who calls herself “the family historian.”
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