Decatur students raise money for new museum exhibit

DECATUR, Ill. (AP) - An exhibit on the Harlem Renaissance has opened at the African-American Cultural and Genealogical Society Museum of Illinois in Decatur.

The (Decatur) Herald and Review reports (http://bit.ly/2tysJji ) that students at Decatur's Robertson Charter School raised more than $1,000 for the exhibit. It features 17 placards with information about African-American entertainers, writers and activists who were active during the Harlem Renaissance in New York during the 1920s. Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong, Langston Hughes and Ella Fitzgerald are among those included.

Teacher Sonje Sturdivant says the idea began with a life-size mannequin of Holiday that the museum already owned. .

This isn't the first year Sturdivant's students raised money for an exhibit. Last year's exhibit was on historically black fraternities and sororities. It's on the museum's second floor.

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Information from: Herald & Review, http://www.herald-review.com