New Vallejo Museum resident historian to co-host Black History event Friday

VALLEJO — The Vallejo Naval and Historical Museum new resident historian Sharon McGriff-Payne will host a special Black History Month event at the museum this Friday. 

The event,"Black History, Vallejo History, Our History: A Conversation," will be co-hosted by former museum board president Liat Meitzenheimer.

McGriff-Payne was named the museum’s Resident Historian on Feb. 1. She said in an interview that she loves the museum and expressed gratitude that former museum director Jim Kern opened the doors to her when she first started researching her two books, “John Grider's Century” and “African Americans in Vallejo.” 

John Grider was an enslaved man who moved from gold country to Vallejo in around 1851 after he bought his freedom. Grider’s story is the focal point of a broader tale of African Americans in Solano, Napa, and Sonoma Counties from 1845 to 1925.

“African Americans in Vallejo” covers the Great Migration period of 1910 though 1970, during which the bulk of Vallejo's Black community took root.

McGriff-Payne said she donated her archives of papers and photographs from over fifteen years of research to the museum. “I thought, instead of gathering dust here in the house, they needed to go down to the museum,” she said. “So thankfully, the museum agreed to take my research.”

Meitzenheimer told the Vallejo Sun in an interview last year that she wants to add new historical exhibits outside the topic of the Mare Island Naval Shipyard, which closed in 1996.

“We can't just use one block of time of history and then think that's going to carry us forever,” Meitzenheimer said. “A lot of the stuff that happens in Vallejo doesn’t get recognition.” She cited the African American housing districts that were built during World War II when most of Vallejo was redlined, as neglected and little-known history. 

McGriff-Payne said that if aspects of history have been neglected, it’s because no one has yet made the effort to write them down. 

“The real story of California, the real story of Vallejo, is starting to get told,” she said. She cited Mel Orpilla’s book, “Filipinos in Vallejo,” as well as “Hispanics and Latinos in Vallejo” by Marisela Barbosa-Cortez, and “Jewish Community of Solano County,” co-authored by Rachel Raskin-Zrihen, Rachel Rae Moncharsh-Lessem and Shoshana Deutscher-Nurik.

“But,” she said, “I think they would agree that we have only started to scratch the surface.”

McGriff-Payne said that her new role as the museum’s first resident historian is yet undefined, and that she’ll figure it out over the next few months. 

She said it is likely that she’ll be involved in creating some exhibits, possibly like the one about African Americans from 1850 to 1950 that she and Kern installed a few years ago.

“I look forward to working more with the museum. I kind of got the research bug and it never goes away,” McGriff-Payne said. “I hope that I can help add to Vallejo’s story.”

Friday’s event begins at 6 p.m. and is part of the museum’s Living History Speakers Series. More information is available at vallejomuseum.net.