Dublin couple’s shared love of history fuels ever-growing backyard museum

Curtis and Brenda Rozier married in 2012 and joined forces in collecting items as they began to travel together.

DUBLIN, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – When Curtis Rozier and his wife Brenda met in 2010, they brought together different experiences, but a common appreciation for history.

“We just started putting things together and said look, we can do this,” said Curtis Rozier, co-owner of C and B Little Hidden Museum in Dublin.

Curtis and Brenda married in 2012 and joined forces in collecting items as they began to travel together. While Curtis serves as a pastor, the two are retired and devote much of their time to gathering artifacts.  Their two-building museum sits on land that has been in Brenda’s family since 1896. It houses items like albums, newspaper clippings, household antiques, copies of speeches and much more.

“Hand-me-downs, a lot of it is donated,” Rozier said. “A lot of the stuff that you’ll see is just stuff that my wife and I have saved over the previous years.”

Outside, you’ll find sharecropping equipment, which Rozier says belonged to his family. When he was eight years old, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stopped in his family’s yard while surveying the treatment of sharecroppers in the south in 1966. He says shaking Dr. King’s hand and hearing the reverend’s conversation with his father changed his life.

“He told my dad, he says “Mr. Rozier, your son here, he’s gone be something one day,” Rozier said. “And all those years after hearing that come from him, he inspired me to do some of the things that I’ve done over my lifetime of 67 years.”

Brenda’s contributions along the walls are puzzles she’s put together, and other items collected on the couple’s travels. Curtis credits his wife with fueling his ambition for the ever-growing museum.

“She said I’m behind you 100%,” Rozier said. “And I think with any marriage if you’ve got a 50-50 relationship and the Lord is in it, you come out ahead every time.”

Most, but not all of the items in the museum are Black history related, highlighting the perseverance of African Americans in the face of oppression. The Roziers say telling these stories across generations is important, but it’s equally vital to keep tangible evidence that can’t be erased.

“I want them to see stuff that’s not being taught in history classes today, I want them to feel like “oh, I wish our parents had told us about that,” Rozier said.

The Roziers are themselves collecting items as they continue to travel and accept artifacts as gifts from others. While it may not be in the form of a museum, Curtis challenges everyone to hold on to the things they value and pass it to the next generation to reflect on.

“If you have old history, find a way to preserve it,” Rozier said. “If it’s nothing but just an ink pen or a piece of paper with just some writing on it. I’m a firm believer that a picture will always paint a thousand words.”

The C and B Little Hidden Museum is located at 116 Flanders Street in Dublin. If you want to visit or donate a collectible item, give Curtis a call at 478-231-3252.