The Museum of African American Addictions Recovery

A regularly resounding theme within the more than 150 blogs that have appeared on this website is that the stories of addiction and their terrible toll are ever present within our culture while the faces and voices of long-term addiction recovery and recovery's healing effects on individuals, families, and communities have been historically invisible (See HERE for detailed discussion). Those truths are even more relevant when applied to communities of color in the United States. So it is with considerable joy that I call readers' attention to a new resource that illuminates the history of resilience, resistance, and recovery within African American communities. That resource is the Museum of African American Addictions Recovery--the brainchild of distinguished author and long-tenured addiction professional, Mark Sanders.

This newly created online Museum is filled with photographs, articles, links to scholarly papers, and brief biographies of African American recovery pioneers, scientists, educators, and addictions professionals. The Museum also portrays the history of African American addiction recovery as represented in film, music, and literature. It is critical that all addiction professionals and recovery support specialists become students of the history of recovery within all the communities they serve and be capable of conveying recovery stories across diverse cultural contexts. Lingering within the Museum of African American Addictions Recovery will provide a fact-filled introduction into the history of resistance, resilience, and recovery that pervades the larger history of Black people in America. From Frederick Douglass and Malcolm X to Whoopi Goldberg and Samuel L. Jackson, this is a site that reminds one of a larger recovery story that has not been told through popular media or venues of professional education. My long-time friend and colleague, Mark Sanders, has provided a valuable contribution to the field through this effort. As a field, we thank him for his years of service and this latest contribution.

To visit the Museum of African American Addictions recovery, click HERE.