Seneca opens a new museum

Seneca officially opened the city’s museum to celebrate African-American history and culture, and the crowd that gathered today was large enough for the city to close a section of W-S 2nd Street.  The museum is named for the late Bertha Lee Strickland, who worked as the housekeeper for the Lunney family, for whom the city’s one other museum is named.  The city whose motto is “City of Smiles, City of Style” was founded in 1873.  The minority African-American community enjoys a long history in Seneca and, as Shelby Henderson said today, the Strickland Museum will reflect the community’s achievements and its struggles.  One of the Seneca African-American community’s distinctions in history is that for many years the Northern Presbyterian Church ran a school for underprivileged black children.  Henderson, chairwoman of the committee that planned the museum, recognized its members, thanking them and city leaders for their support.  Mayor Dan Alexander, a white man, recalled his childhood years of having lived next door to a black physician, C-T Battle and his family and the close relationship the Alexander and Battle families enjoyed. For the rest of the year, the museum will be open Thursdays through Saturday 1 to 5 o’clock.

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