Science & invention / City history / Civil rights & activism
Charles H. Wright
1918–2002 · obstetrician-gynecologist, museum founder
Detroit obstetrician who founded the museum of African American history that now bears his name, one of the largest of its kind in the world.
- Born
Dothan, Alabama- Died
aged 83- Birth name
- Charles Howard Wright
- Also known as
- Dr. Charles H. Wright
- Detroit years
- 1946–2002
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Wright was born in Dothan, Alabama, in 1918, graduated from Alabama State College and Meharry Medical College, and practiced general medicine in Detroit from 1946 to 1950 before completing a residency in obstetrics and gynecology at Harlem Hospital in New York. Back in Detroit he delivered babies for decades as a senior attending physician at Hutzel Women's Hospital, worked at Harper-Grace and Sinai hospitals and taught at Wayne State University's medical school, retiring in 1986. He also served as a physician during the 1965 civil rights marches in Bogalusa, Louisiana. Believing that young African Americans needed to know their history, in 1965 he founded the International Afro-American Museum in a house he owned on West Grand Boulevard. It moved to a new building in Midtown in 1987 and to its present home on Warren Avenue in 1997, and in 1998 it was renamed the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History.
Highlights
- Founded the International Afro-American Museum in Detroit, 1965
- Museum renamed the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, 1998
- Senior attending physician at Hutzel Women's Hospital until 1986
- Physician at the 1965 civil rights marches in Bogalusa, Louisiana
- Author of two books on Paul Robeson
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 2
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Founded · 1965–2002
Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History
The museum he founded in 1965; its 125,000-square-foot Midtown building opened in 1997 and took his name in 1998. It holds one of the largest collections of African American culture in the world.
Founded · 1965–1987
International Afro-American Museum (first site)
Status being checked · 1966–1987
The house Wright owned on West Grand Boulevard, where the museum opened in January 1966 with African art, inventions by African Americans and a civil rights exhibit.