- First of all, I never had a dollhouse as a child.
We were really too poor.
My mother, she raised us, five of us, by herself,
but I knew how to make a dollhouse out of cardboard boxes.
So I would make those for myself and my sisters
to play with.
I finally bought one when I was about 40,
and I just loved the size and the scale of miniatures.
I could decorate-
put down the carpet and the wallpaper and everything-
and that was exciting.
By then I'd had two children,
my son and my daughter.
I thought no person ever loved anybody
as much as I loved my son.
I really thought that.
The last time I saw him then, when he was free,
he was going with his father to be
sized for his tuxedo for the prom.
When I got home, I got a call from him
saying he was in jail.
I just, you know, fell apart.
Just fell apart.
And because he had a prior record then...
- When this bill is law,
three-strikes-and-you're-out will be the law of the land.
It will be used to put 100,000 police officers
on the street.
It will be used to build prisons
to keep 100,000 violent criminals off the street.
It will be used to give our young people
something to say yes to.
- He didn't deserve 167 years.
He didn't kill anybody or anything like that.
So why would you give him 167 years,
when they killed Trayvon and Mike Brown?
Oh, my god!
When Mike Brown's mother said,
"Do you know how hard it is to bring up a black child
and let him graduate from high school?"
And that really hit me,
'cause I knew what she was talking about.
That's a lot of work.
You know, my son is still alive,
but part of me is in prison with him.
Mm-hmm, I never know how they're gonna end up.
If they're sad, you have to give 'em a sad face.
If they're laughing, you have to make 'em laugh.
I was limp.
I couldn't do anything.
All I could do was think about my child
not eating properly, or...
He had never even been away from home.
I had sent him to camp,
but it just broke me down to my knees, I think,
because I didn't raise him like that.
So I stopped working.
I just was very, very depressed
and thinking what I should've done.
And finally I thought,
because I was an activist in the '60s,
I thought I had told them things,
but evidently not enough.
So that gave me the idea to make the Black History Museum
and go into the schools and explain their lineage.
They didn't come from weak people.
They came from people that wanted a brighter future
and suffered a lot to get to that point.
So, that's what I want to tell the young people.
They don't have to join a gang or...
Just be themselves.
So none of this is sewn.
I don't know how to sew,
but we use tacky glue,
and that is what's held all these exhibits together
all these years, tacky glue.
What the media shows and what they choose to cover
is oftentimes not flattering to young black men
and you can't tell me that doesn't affect them,
the way they think about themselves.
So, my job, I felt, was to tell them about
where they came from,
what our people had to go through
to even be recognized as a human being.
So, we owe them a debt.
We owe our ancestors a debt.
A lot of times the kids aren't taught that at home,
and definitely not at school.
So, this was my contribution.
That took my mind off of the situation with my son,
especially in the beginning.
I would just go without eating, bathing,
everything, just into it,
and that helped me.
Saved my life, I think.
My husband, he designed these boxes
and made sure it had glass on the top
so the light could get in.
- I can. - Oh yeah.
- Cut that down - Look at that!
- Yeah, I can cut that down.
- If we had another way.
He'd tell me, "I have to have you looked at."
Isn't that ugly?
Say that to your wife.
"I have to have you looked at." - Mm-hmm.
Yeah, if he was around you all the time
he'd be saying the same thing.
- Woo.
He always wanted my success and the success of our work.
So the dioramas wouldn't have any place to be
if he didn't make the boxes.
So, he can whip 'em out like that.
It's me that takes all the time.
'Cause it's a lot of work.
This is my little part.
I can't go to jail anymore.
And I've marched;
I don't wanna do that anymore.
But I will show them who they are,
who their people were,
and maybe that'll pick 'em up.
I look at these kids.
They need me just like he needed more of...
I like for them to be wherever they can be seen
and appreciated.
Nobody sees them here.
That's part of my dream for the future.
In my mind, thinking about the future,
we have a building that we can use and renovate.
Where we still have the museum expanded,
and that I might have a creative room
to work with children and teach them how to
accomplish this craft.
Maybe have a little library for children in there.
It's a happy place.
It's a safe place for families to spend time,
because this is not a looky-loo where you can just
look at it and go.
You have to spend some time with your child,
so they will know the truth.
Just a place where they can come and learn
and have fun, read.
I just see something for the future
that would be just heavenly.
Yeah, and I believe it's gonna come, too.
Yeah, we don't have a quarter,
but it's gonna come.
Mm-hmm.
'Cause the children are at stake.
So.
Are we good? - Yeah.
Should we do the waltz?
- The waltz?
Yes, you should do the waltz.