Redwood City – If you or a loved one ever needed a blood transfusion, you can thank Charles Drew, a physician who invented a way to preserve donated blood.
The “Father of the Blood Bank,” as Drew was known, is among the stories told at the Domini Hoskins Black History Museum & Learning Center in Redwood City. Drew is credited with saving thousands of lives.
“I first take visitors to the section on inventions,” Carolyn Hoskins, the museum’s founder and chief curator, said on a recent tour. “I say to all of the kids that come into the museum, ‘Go and research your history and your ancestors because everybody has contributed in so many ways, and you should be proud of that.’”
This morning, the Board of Supervisors proclaimed February as Black History Month. Hoskins received the proclamation, along with Maurice Goodman, president of the San Mateo NAACP.
“I would like to express my gratitude to Carolyn Hoskins for her dedication to preserving Black history,” said Supervisor Lisa Gauthier, who sponsored the proclamation.
“Black history should not be confined to just the month of February; the stories of resilience, excellence, and the contributions that have shaped the world deserve to be celebrated year-round,” Gauthier said.
Located at 890 Jefferson Ave. in downtown Redwood City, the museum features objects and exhibits large and small, all designed to encompass the African American experience.
Among the inventors highlighted at the museum is Charles Drew, an African American born in 1904 who fought racial prejudices to become a “renowned surgeon and pioneer in the preservation of life-saving blood plasma.”
There’s the Army uniform worn by Roy Placide Becnel, a World War II soldier who fought for a country that denied him basic rights at home. A shout-out to Mary E. Mahoney, who was born in 1845 to freed slaves and became the nation’s first African American licensed nurse.
Objects include posters, books, vinyl records, sports memorabilia, news clippings, magazine covers, cereal boxes, bags that held potato chips (thank you George Speck, an African American chef born in 1824 who is credited as an inventor of one of America’s favorite snacks).
Displays include the fight for civil rights, the Black Power movement of the 1960s, the election of Barack Obama and Black Lives Matter.
A table displays names of African American inventors who contributed to the development of many items we take for granted today: the gas mask (Garrett Morgan), fire extinguisher (Thomas Martin), sanitary pads (Mary Beatrice Davidson) and many more.
Don’t expect finely curated displays with long descriptions.
“I leave it to people to take the opportunity to Google this information, learn the history the same as I do,” Hoskins said.
The idea for the museum came to Hoskins two decades ago. Her grandson, Domini, had grown weary of writing reports on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. for Black history assignments.
“So he says to me, ‘Grammy, I am not writing another report on Dr. King because I know everything there is to know about him.’ His powerful question to me was, ‘Weren’t there any other famous Black people that did anything?
“So today, in answer to his question,” Hoskins said, “you are going to see 22,000 square feet of African American history.”
Michelle Durand
Chief Communications Officer
mdurand@smcgov.org