[1] The museum is at 1601 East North Avenue in a renovated firehouse, a Victorian Mansion, and two former apartment dwellings that provide nearly 30,000 square feet (3,000 m2) of exhibit and office space.
[2] The museum's co-founder, Dr. Joanne Martin, describes the importance of preserving Black history in this way, stating: 'everything else, it seems like a movie if you don't have a sense of exactly what people were fighting against.
In the early days, Dr. Elmer Martin was forced to ask his wife to sell her wedding ring to keep the moving exhibit going.
However, it received national recognition in 1983 when the founding members were allotted grants, loans, and endowments to open a permanent exhibition.
In 1988, Blacks in Wax received its permanent home on the 1600 block of North Avenue in the neighborhood of Oliver.