The Michigan History Foundation has announced a three-year, $1 million grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to enhance knowledge about the state's racial histories and issues of racial equity.

The grant will be used to support "Sharing Michigan's Untold Stories," a project of the Michigan Historical Center, which includes the Michigan Historical Museum. The project is part of the museum's "Exhibits for a New Century" initiative, which aims to increase the diversity of voices and people represented in exhibits; provide more opportunities for children to touch and sense history; create exhibits that link to online resources for teachers, students, and families; better utilize technology to enhance the visitor experience; and use artifacts, text, and images to tell more diverse stories.

The first phase of the project will include changes to exhibits about Michigan's first inhabitants, its territorial capitol and settlement, and the Civil War, while the second phase will see the addition of Native American voices to the "Growing Up in Michigan" exhibit and complete story development of exhibits highlighting the lumber and mining industries and the late nineteenth-century.

"This grant will help us work with communities across the state whose stories are not always told," said Michigan Historical Center director Sandra Clark. "It will advance our goal of ensuring that everyone who visits the Michigan Historical Museum sees themselves in our exhibits. It also will help us explore new ways of sharing all of Michigan's stories, both inside and outside our walls."