The city of Richmond knows itself. We’ve seen it all before — great booms, big busts, the ebb and flow of a diverse community — and learned from our experiences. The only way forward these days is to move with intention in this ever-shrinking world. At East Brother Beer, we take pride in our great city and its storied history and go forward with purpose towards a bright future.
It’s Richmond’s people that steer this ship. An intrepid group of community-builders who are dead-set on a future for Richmond as rich as its past. With Pride and Purpose they build our community and with Pride and Purpose we tell their stories.
PRIDE & PURPOSE: THE RICHMOND MUSEUM OF HISTORY
There are certain things that immediately come to mind when you think about Richmond. Rosie the Riveter, the shipyards, Point Richmond...but there’s so much more to the city. And Melinda McCrary wants you to know about it.
Melinda is the executive director of the Richmond Museum of History, and thinks constantly about how to tell the stories and long-forgotten tales of the city. “If you can give me ten minutes, I can change your whole perception about what Richmond is,” she says enthusiastically.
For the amount of Richmond pride Melinda beams, you wouldn’t guess that she wasn’t from the city. “I moved here with my husband in 2006 from graduate school, where I was studying anthropology and we bounced around a little bit and then we ended up in the East Bay. And we landed in Richmond because it was kind of central to both of our jobs.”
It didn’t take long for Melinda to fall in love with the area, which she did while volunteering at the Richmond Museum as part of her graduate work. “I was placed there as part of my internship for the San Francisco State Museum Studies program.” Eventually, she’d get promoted—again and again and again—before assuming her current position about seven years ago.
Being a small, community-focused museum means wearing a lot of hats for Melinda, who can go from talking to donors one day to leading school groups another to working with living historical legends who just happen to come across the museum’s steps. “You know, last weekend, I was totally amazed to meet someone who was integral to the development of the Black Panther Party,” she shares. “He came to Richmond to research his childhood home, and he was able to share some of his memories with us.”
According to Melinda, Richmond was a center for the Black Panther Party, along with a number of social movements and union groups. Richmond had a female mayor in the 1920’s—Mattie Chandler, who was elected on July 1, 1926, just a few years after women won the right to vote. The history of Richmond is both diverse and revolutionary, and it’s Melinda’s job to find ways to share that history with the community. To give just a small glimpse into the world she’s doing currently: In 2020, Melinda plans to put together exhibits showcasing the myriad communities that have called Richmond home, including exhibits highlighting refugees, the history of local indigenous groups, and of Laotian immigrants who have made Richmond their home.
It’s important for Melinda to share these stories because she knows that not everyone is moved by tales of Rosie the Riveter, for example—and that there’s so much more to the story behind Richmond than initially meets the eye. “There's war, there's violence, there's American imperialism, nationalism. Not everybody is inspired by that type of story. Some people are inspired by resistance and agency,” she notes, then continues: “me personally, that's what inspires me.”
Being the director of the museum isn’t just about capturing lost memories of Richmond, however. Melinda thinks critically about her role in the community and how to engage current citizens with the stories of their neighborhoods. “Local history is important because it inspires people. It shows that amazing things have taken place in their city—the place they live and it inspires them to think about their own lives,” she says. “I am looking to instill a sense of pride and the people who live in Richmond today and outside of Richmond. I really want to inspire people to live their best life by telling some of these amazing stories that exist in our own community.”
Inclusivity and community engagement are paramount to Melinda, who knows that entering a museum can be intimidating, and has sometimes been off-putting or discriminatory to certain groups. “We have a diverse community and I want to make everybody feel welcome in a museum,” she says. “I want to give people from all walks of life, regardless of where they’re from, a great experience at a museum so that they will take that forward and want to go to other museums.”
Often times, history is written by those in power at the expense of the marginalized and disenfranchised, and Melinda hopes that the Richmond Museum of History tells the stories of all, not just of history’s winners. “It's really hard because history is not equal at all. History is not recorded equally and it's not saved equally and it's not told equally.”
The Richmond Museum is hoping to change that. Along with genealogy projects aimed at serving Richmond’s diverse community, they’re also changing the name of the museum: instead of just being known as the Richmond Museum of History, Melinda and her team will be adding to the name: The Richmond Museum of History and Culture. “History is a really bad story for a lot of people, right? It's not an inspiring story, it’s a sad story. But if we are showcasing both history and culture that allows us to work with all members of our community today.”
It’s clear that Melinda is all in. When we ask what she’s excited about in the future, she rattles off an impressive list of local achievements—she’s clearly paying attention to what’s happening in Richmond and genuinely feels excited for what’s to come. She’s also unapologetically thrilled to shout out the projects she’s working on, and wants more than anything for folks to come visit the museum.
Melinda’s enthusiasm is contagious. There’s a moment where we wonder: is it Richmond or is it Melinda? What drives her to care so much about our city? What motivates her to want to serve her community? Her answer says it all: “I really feel a lot of times, when I think about it, that I'm living the dream.”
