Bernard Kinsey
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Bernard Kinsey is a Los Angeles philanthropist with a passion for African-American history and art of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
He and his wife Shirley, own one of the largest collections of artifacts tracing African-American history. Their collection is temporarily housed in the Los Angeles African American Museum, 600 State Drive in Los Angeles, California. Their collection includes rarities such as a letter written from Malcolm X to Alex Haley, two years before the 1965 assassination of Malcolm X. According to a CBS Sunday Morning News report, the Kinseys have works of art displayed throughout their home.
Both Bernard and Shirley are retired from Xerox, where Bernard was a vice-president of the corporation at the time of his retirement. He continues to work as a business consultant. The couple has raised over $22 million to be dispersed for scholarships at historically black universities. As students, they attended Florida A & M University and they have personally contributed (or leveraged) over $350,000 to their alma mater. (Black Legacy of Giving Reception)
A number of pieces in their collection are now on a two-year lending tour around the country. Charmaine Jefferson, an executive director of the California African-American Museum in Los Angeles, is quoted as saying "...The story, the feeling, the sensation for African Americans about who we are and where we come from and what we don't know about ourselves, comes from being able to look at this collective work. And so this collection is powerful for that reason." [1]
The Kinsey Collection includes sculptures, paintings, documents, and a diverse collection of artifacts of historical value.
Mr. Kinsey was a founding board member of the William H. Johnson Foundation for the Arts which was established in 2001. The purpose of the foundation is to encourage minority artists early in their careers, by offering them financial grants. [2] On February 6, 2006 Bernard Kinsey was honored by the Black Legacy of Giving Foundation for his work as a black leader and philanthropist in education and the arts.[3]
