Tangipahoa African American Heritage Museum

The Tangipahoa African American Heritage Museum showcases African American heritage through writings, inventions, photos, artwork, and history. The museum is comprised of eight galleries covering the history of Louisiana's Florida Parishes, a genealogy lab, the Underground Railroad, African American greats in music and sports, inventors, plus art and artifacts.

Created by Southern University, the museum's largest gallery takes you to the early cultures of Africa, a land as creative as it is massive. Find out what ancient Africans wore, and why. See how pottery, jewelry, math, and science evolved in humanity's first home. The museum's hands-on genealogy lab, created by Southeastern Louisiana University, might teach you something new about your family—and make history more personal. And the inventor’s area features rare information, artifacts, patents, and biographies of the African American inventors whose ideas have changed our everyday lives—people like Garrett Morgan, who created the modern traffic light; Fredrick Jones, who patented the air conditioner; or Alexander Miles, who holds the patent on the elevator.

The museum also features a set of twenty-six 8x8 murals that illustrate, in dramatic color, the history of African Americans in the United States, from their original homelands in West Africa, through the horrors of the “middle passage,” and into the plantation South. The murals carry the story up through Reconstruction, Jim Crow segregation, and the Civil Rights movement. These are powerful, emotionally charged pieces that will move every visitor. In addition, the staff continues to bring in exhibits on a rotating basis from nationally known artists.