The HistoryMakers

Blackworld History Museum founder, Lois Diane Conley was born in St. Louis, Missouri on July 29, 1946. Conley was born to Leo and Emma Conley, as the second oldest of eight children. Conley attended St. Louis' Waring Elementary School and Vashon High School. After graduating from high school in l964, Conley attended night school at Washington University for several years before taking a break. When she resumed her college career, she had a husband, child and full-time job so she attended several institutions of higher learning, including Forest Park Community College where she earned her A.A. degree in communications in l977, Maryville College and Saint Louis University where she earned her B.A. degree in communications in l983 and her M.A. degree in education in l993. In 2001, Conley earned a Graduate Certificate in Museum Studies from the University of Missouri-St. Louis. She frequented the community based Black Topographical Research Center in the late 1960s and early 1970s to learn about African American History. Prior to opening the Blackworld History Museum in 1997, Conley dedicated several years towards researching African American history, focusing particularly on the western expansion and the Underground Railroad.

The Blackworld History Museum was initially named the Blackworld History Wax Museum, and it is the second of its kind in the United States. Its building formerly housed a Catholic school. The museum depicts the lives and contributions of African Americans "with a Missouri connection," from the earliest days of slavery through the 20th century. Upon the museum's opening, architecture students from Washington University's National Organization of Minority Architecture Students (NOMAS) rebuilt a slave cabin from the Wright-Smith Plantation in Jonesburg, Missouri inside the museum. Other museum exhibits document the history and brutality of slavery and give depictions of daily life for African Americans from pre-Civil War through the years that followed.

The Blackworld History Museum's exhibits include several life size wax figures, several of which were sculpted by Conley herself, including: George Washington Carver, Dred and Harriet Scott, the Reverend John Berry Meacham and Josephine Baker.

Conley has received several awards and honors consisting of the Young Women's Christian Association "Special Leader Award," the Older Women's League "Women of Worth Award," the Coalition of 100 Black Women's Village Builders' Award and the Monsanto Y's Zealot Award.

Conley was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on October 19, 2007.