Dr. Tonya Matthews is president & chief executive officer of the International African American Museum in South Carolina. The museum opened to visitors in 2023 after over 20 years of planning, fundraising and development at the historic Gadsden’s Wharf in Charleston. It is estimated that this was the landing place for 45% of all enslaved Africans in the US.
Today, the International African American Museum at Gadsden’s Wharf honours the history of African and African American people. The museum shows 12 permanent exhibitions, accompanied by a special exhibitions gallery. Outside, visitors can take time to reflect in the African Ancestors Memorial Garden, a series of outdoor spaces which seeks to connect the Charleston site with global African and African American history through the landscape.
Speaking to blooloop ahead of the opening, Matthews said: “One of the things that we’ve come to honour and understand is the power of story. Folks love stories. We know that we, as human beings, resonate with a really good story, and they last forever. So there is the power in story to change hearts and minds and to put our world in context.
“I also think that intuitively we can tell when stories have important elements that are missing. I think we can tell when stories are false, we can tell when stories have agendas. And that has been one of the challenges of telling the stories of African Americans. The way that we have told those stories has been fraught with various agendas, and various missing pieces.
“I think there’s a part of us that can feel that something is missing, that is not quite right. This robs a story of its power and its ability to challenge and disrupt this institutionalized and systematic racism.”
Matthews is an engineer, acclaimed poet, and thought leader in institutionalised equity and inclusion frameworks, social entrepreneurship, and the intersectionality of formal and informal education.
In 2016 she was named by Crain’s Business as one of the Most Influential Women in Michigan, and in 2017 Career Mastered Magazine recognised her as a Trailblazer. Matthews was appointed to serve on the National Assessment Governing Board by both Democratic and Republican administrations. She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences Board on Science Education.
Matthews previously held the positions of president & CEO of the Michigan Science Centre and associate provost for inclusive workforce development at Wayne State University. She established The STEMinista Project while working at the Michigan Science Centre. This movement aims to empower girls in STEM-related occupations. With an inclusive focus on women of colour, she continues this work today with STEMinista Rising, a platform that supports professional women in STEM and the colleagues who endorse them.