From Docent to Professional to Activist to Critical Race Theorist: A Biomythography of a Black American Museum Professional

The wisdom of Audre Lorde informs us that "the master's tools will never dismantle the master's house." The origins of many museum collections are that their objects were obtained by colonizers who became the masters of colonized people's cultural heritage. One of the master's tools has always been to create and benefit from a system of free labor. Within the museum, the vestiges of the master's tool of free labor remain, although with different shapes and aims. The system of free labor in the museum is tangential with the presence of the docent corps. This article explores the sensationalism of battles over the fate of docent groups in light of the need to make fundamental shifts in museum praxis.