Ex-Cons Open Black History Pop-Up Museum In Long Island City

LONG ISLAND CITY, QUEENS -- The first advice students hear when they walk into Mike Logan's class is to never give up on their goals.

It doesn't matter if you have a criminal record, which they do, or a high school diploma, which they don't. In Logan's eyes, each student has potential to succeed, and he's going to tap it.

Logan teaches the pre-GED Young Adult Literacy Program at The Fortune Society, a nonprofit that helps ex-cons get back on their feet. His "students" - 18-to-24-year-olds with criminal pasts - are the masterminds behind the new pop-up African American History museum at Fortune's Long Island City headquarters.

The college-level exhibit, which chronicles major - and some widely unknown - events and figures in Black history, opened on Wednesday at 29-76 Northern Blvd. It was researched, curated and installed entirely by the 19 women and men enrolled in Logan's pre-GED class, many of whom cannot read past an eight-grade level, Colleen Roche, a spokeswoman for the organization, told Patch.

Despite their lack of education, Logan isn't surprised by his students' impressive work. After all, the instructor said, he's always told his students they can do anything.

"There's always a way to achieve your goals," he said. "And it may not be in the traditional way, because you learn things differently."

This kind of hands-on approach has been Logan's teaching style since he started teaching at The Fortune Society. He believes every student has the ability to express themselves, no matter what traditional grades they receive on paper.

"Over the years, Michael Logan has seen student after student gain confidence once they uncover that they are unique instead of incapable," said Fortune CEO JoAnne Page. "It can be challenging at first, but the results significantly outweigh the struggle."

Those results include in-depth pieces on Black history events now plastered across the pop-up museum for all to see. Topics include: Black cinema and music, Black inventors, the Black Wall Street Massacre, the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court case, civil rights, slavery and the triangular slave trade.

The museum also highlights Black historical figures such as Emmett Till, Madam C.J. Walker, Rosa Parks, Claudette Colvin, Ruby Bridges, the Little Rock Nine, Freedom Riders, the Buffalo Soldiers and the Tuskegee Airmen.

The museum will stay up until Summer 2018 and is open to the public by reservation, Roche said. The students who created the exhibit will also serve as its tour guides.

For both Logan and his students, it serves as a constant reminder of how far they've come.

"Every individual with justice involvement needs to transcend in order to find success in a society that all too often marginalizes and stigmatizes them," Logan said. Perseverance and self-determination are vital."

The Fortune Society's students who put the museum together were not immediately available for comment.

Lead photos courtesy of The Fortune Society.