Special Guest attends City Luncheon

Word of mouth is growing about the City of Seneca’s new museum, the Bertha Lee Strickland Cultural Museum, which will be the first in the Upstate dedicated to the history of the African-American community.  The City spotlighted the new museum Thursday afternoon to a 100-plus person crowd at a luncheon celebrating Black History Month.  The luncheon attracted a special guest, explains museum curator and director Dr. John Martin. “I had a call the other day, someone wanted to come and we said we were full, that is before be decided to move to 102 rather than 80.  The woman said she wanted to bring a guest from the African-American community who used to pick cotton where the Shaver Complex is now.  There are a tremendous number of people that are coming forward from the community who have stories to tell.  There has been reluctance over the years but now they are coming fourth seeing that the Bertha Lee Strickland Cultural Museum is moving forward.” The City is currently collecting word portraits for the museum, tells Dr. Martin. “What we are doing now with the Bertha Lee Strickland Cultural Museum is we’re creating word portraits.  As we all speak, we are creating the word portraits of what is to come; eventually there will be designs and such.  Again, we are moving slowly and we want to do it right.” If you have a story about the African-American community that you would like to share, contact Museum Assistant Mollie Smith at (864) 247-3996.