Visionary saw Black museum
Adelia Andrews was 96
Services were held last Friday for Adelia Andrews, at Bel-Vue Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles Calif. She was the mother of veteran musician and educator Reggie Andrews and one of the forces behind creation of the California African American Museum (CAAM).
Adelia transitioned on Aug. 7. She was 96 years old.
Andrews was born Nov. 7, 1914, in New Orleans, La., the only child of the Rev. Christopher Columbus and Adelia Beatty Smith. Her father, C.C. Smith, was a known force among the church community and died in 1922 when Adelia was only 8 years old. That sparked a move to Los Angeles by Adelia and her mother the following year.
In L.A., Andrews attended public schools and graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School in 1932 with a business major. Graduation was followed by various jobs in the secretarial field—stenographer, bookkeeper and office manager from 1933 until 1944.
She married Joseph Henry Andrews entered her life in 1943. He, like Adelia’s father, would find his calling in the church.
Andrews worked at the L.A. Urban League during the late 1940s.
In 1947, she and Joseph were among the 22 charter members of Bel-Vue Community Presbyterian Church founded under reverends St. Paul Epps and Jerome James.
In the early 1960s, Andrews began work with the State of California at the California Museum of Science and Industry (CMSI).
In 1973, she was commissioned to be exhibit director to coordinate all events and programs of the Bicentennial Black Achievement Exhibit, which opened in 1976. Her exhaustive work and contributions to the dynamic exhibit would be the impetus for her brainchild, the California African American Museum (CAAM), which she worked tirelessly to see come into fruition.
Andrews is survived by her two children, Yolanda and Reggie; cousins Walter Fielder, Roosevelt and Florence Beatty, and Jean; six grandchildren, Aisha, Nia, India, Dominique, Marla and Renon; 13 great-grandchildren, and four great-great-grandchildren.
Thomas Jefferson High School administration, teachers, and students gathered at the California African American Museum recently to celebrate its first awards banquet for student groups Sister Circle and Jefferson African American Male Academy of Leadership (JAAMAL).
Founded by Bobbi McDaniel, after a riot between Black and Latino students erupted on campus at Santee High School in 2005, Sister Circle was formed as support group for the Black female students who felt that their voices and concerns we not being heard or addressed.
The WOCI, Women of Color Inc. entertainment networking group is hosting “Girl’s Night Out: Shopping 4 A Cause,” a holiday shopping cultural event at the California African American Museum to raise money for its Black Beauty Shop Health Outreach Program (BBSHOP). More than 400 women are expected to come out on Saturday from 6 to 10 p.m.
At this time of the year, Charmaine Jefferson is under no allusion about what her job is.
“My job is to put my hands (deep) in your pocket and pull out something big.”
Although drolly humorous, Jefferson, who is executive director of the California African American Museum (CAAM) in Exposition Park, is quite serious. The-state supported cultural institution will host its eighth fundraiser Saturday and Sunday, “An Artful Evening at CAAM,” and the money collected provides approximately one-quarter of the museum’s annual budget.
The Citizens Redistricting Committee (CRC) released its latest visualization map detailing what proposed congressional and state political boundaries could look like.
For those of who think Harlem’s Apollo Theater is the syndicated television show of the same name, the California African American Museum’s (CAAM) ongoing exhibition, “Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing,” should be an eye-opener.
