“What are we trying to do here?”

This museum is a tribute to one tenant farmer, Cornell “Shorty” Lawson, honoring him and thousands of farmers throughout the tobacco-growing South. Born March 5, 1938 he farmed all of his life, most of that time living in the house that is now the museum. His is a story seldom told. In the formal history he was merely a laborer in the transitional era from Jim Crow to Civil Rights, but he was more than that. The museum depicts his family’s daily life, conveying it through art, artifacts, and stories about him. 

Purpose: “I don’t want Shorty Lawson to be forgotten.” 

The goal of the museum is to provide a sense of the hardships and pleasures of his family from 1950 to 1980. We consider how Shorty Lawson’s character made him an exemplary human being, guided him through a difficult period of history, helped him disprove racist stereotypes, shape his children, and challenge those who knew him. His life suggests that we can gain critical lessons from people society considers ordinary. 

“If we want to change the world, we got to look at the little man. All them little folks out there- black peoples, poor white peoples- got big minds.” (Thornton Dial) 

“America needs the Negro for ballast; his tropical warmth and spontaneous emotionalism form a counterpart to the cold and calculating Anglo-Saxon.” (Anna Julia Cooper)