Allen adds to history museum’s African-American exhibit

♦ Some copies will also be donated to library

The Rome Area History Museum’s African-American history section received several donations from Bishop Norris K. Allen Sr., who presented the museum with a series of photos and memorabilia related to the civil rights movement and the local Martin Luther King Jr. Birthday Celebration Commission.

Allen will also be presenting copies of the items to the Rome-Floyd Library for a similar display.

Among the items Allen took to the museum Friday are a huge placard with the signatures of everyone who attended the Camelot Ball at Forrest Place in Rome prior to the inauguration of President Barack Obama in 2009.

The placard is lined with photographs of people important to the advancement of civil rights from Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, President Lyndon Johnson, Rosa Parks and many others.

Allen said the Camelot Ball is believed to have been the first large scale pre-inauguration ball to celebrate the election of America’s first African-American president.

Several photographs of people associated with the original MLK Birthday Commission are included in the items that will become part of a permanent display.

A personal photograph of a much younger Allen with Coretta Scott King is also part of the exhibit.

Photographs with historical information about Joe Wright, the longest serving AfricanAmerican funeral director and J.L. Vaughn Sr., the first African-American principal of an integrated school in Floyd County — the old Johnson Elementary School — are also included in the exhibit.

Among the items donated include a resolution entered into the Congressional Record in January of 2013 by then Congressman Phil Gingrey pointing to the history of the King celebration in Rome.

The Northwest Georgia Minority Business Association is also included in the items donated to the museum.

Debbie Galloway said she plans to put several of the items in the museum’s front show window until the end of Black History Month before moving them back inside to become part of the permanent exhibit.

Left top: Bishop Norris K. Allen Sr., has donated a series of items related to the Martin Luther King Birthday Commission in Rome and other civil rights memorabilia to the Rome Area History Museum. Allen is flanked by his wife Gladys, left, and Debbie Galloway of the museum. They are pictured with a huge card signed by attendees of the Camelot Ball in Rome in 2009, a pre-inaugural event for President Barack Obama. Left below: Galloway looks over a book donated by Norris K. Allen Sr. as part of an exhibit of civil rights memorabilia donated to the museum by Allen.

/ Doug Walker Left: Norris K. Allen Sr., left, and J.L. Vaughn Sr. with a photo of Vaughn when he was the first African-American principal of an integrated school in Rome, the old Johnson Elementary School. The photo is part of a series of items Allen has donated to the Rome Area History Museum.