Detroit’s Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History grew from physician Charles H. Wright’s effort to preserve and teach African American history, beginning with the International Afro-American Museum in 1965. Expanding from a house on West Grand Boulevard to larger Midtown sites, it opened its current Warren Avenue building in 1997 and became one of the world’s oldest and largest independent African-American museums. Its collections, major exhibitions, and preserved documents trace centuries of African American history, while its rotunda, theater, educational programs, and African World Festival have made it both a leading cultural institution and an important civic gathering place in Detroit.