Our Second Acts feature is proof that it’s never too late to find success in entirely new ventures. These stories celebrate individuals who discovered purpose and fulfillment in the later chapters of life.

It’s not quite fair to say that Delbert Richardson’s “Second Act” was hatched when he was just beginning his first. Yet there’s some truth to it.

Richardson was attending the University of Washington in 1973 when he began to understand African culture and the systemic racism that permeates America. He notes that African American Studies was a prerequisite then, and that was the first time he realized his history didn’t start with slavery.

“I was reborn,” says Richardson, noting that he was never exposed to Black history in elementary, middle, or high school. “First thing is I was made aware. Then I became curious. What else don’t I know?”

Richardson went on to a career as a merchandise buyer at Costco and a stint at Southern Wine & Spirits, but he continued to immerse himself in literature, documentaries, films, and academic studies that explored Black history, culture, and contemporary issues. In 2005, he launched the American History Traveling Museum: The Unspoken Truths , a traveling and online museum that showcases thousands of artifacts focusing on African and Black history, with an emphasis on enslavement in the United States. He has retired from Southern Wine eight years ago and now focuses on the museum full time.

“Really, to me, the magic of my work creates this healthy space for sometimes critical conversations that we normally don’t have,” says Richardson, who was born in Detroit but moved to Seattle when his father landed a job at Boeing. “The goal is to create this sense of belonging in terms of identity. The one thing about telling the truth is you don’t have to make things up.”

The award-winning museum contains four sections: Mother Africa (highlighting the contributions Africans have made throughout the world); American Chattel Slavery; the Jim Crow era; and Still We Rise, described as “everyday items African Americans have invented or improved upon.” Many of the museum’s artifacts and photos are chilling. Various restraints reveal the horrors of enslavement. One picture shows a crowd milling around a lynched Black man as a little girl smirks at the camera just feet away. Others cite the accomplishments and inventions of African Americans that have been largely ignored in history books. The various artifacts in all four sections provoke guilt, shame, rage, anger, wonder, and discovery.

Richardson, who calls himself an “ethnomuseumologist,” says the museum depicts history as it happened, and is sometimes at odds with what most Americans are taught. Richardson notes that several important facts are often glossed over.

Most Americans, for example, don’t know that the Emancipation Proclamation applied only to people in Confederate states, not those enslaved in Union-held territories. They weren’t freed until the 13th Amendment was passed. Most Americans also don’t realize that more than 90 Black men received the Medal of Honor for their service in the Civil War, or that the Butler Medal also recognized Black men for their service. During the battle of New Market Heights (in Virginia), Maj. Gen. Benjamin F. Butler commissioned his own medal and personally awarded it to his Black regiment in honor of their bravery.

“We’re not taught that,” Richardson says. “There’s this cloak of ignorance around American history that are lies or history being glossed over. I tell people all the time, ‘Don’t believe anything I’m telling you. Look it up.’ “My work is around providing information through a different paradigm.”

Richardson often works with school districts and teachers, and the vast majority of his business comes via word of mouth. He is developing a virtual platform where schoolteachers can log onto his website, pay a fee of a few hundred dollars, and receive lesson plans with artifacts accompanied by Richardson’s storytelling.

He also does summer programs called Junior Storytellers in collaboration with public libraries.

“All these steps have been orchestrated,” he says. “I retired so I could do this more.”