Black figures wax eloquent

Unlike most such museums, which tend to derive much of their interest from a combination of celebrity worship and a fascination with the odd, lifelike qualities of the figures, this one offers a gut-wrenching history lesson. Displays take visitors from before the time of the slave boats to the present, with the newest display featuring President Obama.

There are political, civil rights, and entertainment figures of African descent from Imhotep, the Egyptian architect and physician, through W.E.B. Du Bois, a founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, to Billie Holiday to Nelson and Winnie Mandela to Colin Powell, and, in the born-in-Baltimore section, the late Celtics star Reggie Lewis.

But it is the lynching exhibit, in a separate below-ground room with a posted warning that children under age 12 should probably not enter, that tears at the heart. Here, along with newspaper accounts detailing the tragedy, is a life-sized depiction of the lynching of Hayes Turner and his pregnant wife, Mary.

Along with her late husband, Elmer Martin, a sociologist and social work professor, Joanne Martin, an educator, sold her wedding ring to help establish this museum in 1983. Between 1985 and 1987, the museum received grants and loans from the city that eventually allowed it to move from its 1,200-square-foot facility into the 30,000 square feet of exhibit and office space it occupies today.

National Great Blacks in Wax Museum, 1601-03 East North Ave., Baltimore, 410-563-3404, www.ngbiwm.com. Hours change seasonally. Adults $12, seniors (55 and up), college students with ID, and children ages 12-17 $11, 4-11 $10, under 3 free.