NEW ORLEANS — The George and Leah McKenna Museum of African American Art on Carondelet street is an impressive showcase of black art.
But who are George and Leah McKenna. The simple answer is that they were a university professor, school teacher, and two amazing parents.
"The most important thing in my life I had nothing to do with that's who my mother and father were. That's why I named the museum after them," explains Dr. Dwight McKenna.
Their son is Orleans Parish coroner Dr. Dwight McKenna, and his wife is Beverly Stanton McKenna, the editor of the New Orleans Tribune, a minority-focused newspaper.
The couple started the museum because they love art, and they had a lot of it.
"We've been collecting since we were newlyweds..." says Beverly McKenna.
By 2003, they had been collecting for nearly three decades, so they opened the museum.
It's impressive that everything inside is from their private collection. They created a space where black people could see themselves reflected in art and provided a platform for black artists.
"We've given a lot of young black artists starts. Some of them now have paintings in the Smithsonian because their first showings were here and without that they would have never been started," points out Dr. McKenna.
A few years after they opened the art museum, the McKenna's opened Le Musée de f.p.c. on Esplanade Ave to document the contributions of free people of color.
"We have the actual slave irons that slaves used to wear. We have slave documents," said Dr. McKenna.
They also have a book of real estate records showing that black people owned more than a third of property in the French Quarter from the 1700s to the Civil War.
"What this has to do, it lets young people know how their ancestors suffered. How they've achieved and how they've overcome so that they understand that you are where you over the backs of a lot of hardships, misuse, abuse," explains Dr. McKenna.
In addition to the two museums, the couple's most recent project is Bayou Road, where they have been buying property since before Katrina and renting the spaces to black entrepreneurs at affordable rates.
"We intentionally set out to save that street to keep a black presence. We wanted to maintain that space for black people," says Beverly McKenna.
Their passion for community comes from their upbringings.
"We both realize we were raised in households where we knew what we had been blessed with. We wanted to open the doors, and when you do that, you bring somebody else along with you," said Beverly McKenna.
That's exactly what the McKennas are doing, making space for everyone to join them on their journey of preserving culture, creating opportunities, and empowering others.