Shirley Kinsey

Shirley was born to Erma and Eddie Pooler on February 7, 1946, in Lake City, Florida.[1] She attended university at Florida A&M University, where she met Bernard Kinsey, her future husband, following her arrest at a civil rights protest.[2] She graduated with a degree in English in 1967.[1] Shirley and Bernard married the same year and set a goal of travelling the world together.[3] The couple was married in Tallahassee at the First Baptist Institutional Church, followed by a reception in the faculty lounge at the university.[4] Following graduation she was hired as a teacher with the Compton Unified School District.[1] She later returned to school, graduating in 1976 from Pepperdine University with a master's degree in multi-cultural education.[1]

Shirley and Bernard began collecting art as a way of documenting their travels.[5][6] Realizing they knew little of their own history and culture, the couple began collecting African-American art, literature and manuscripts eventually amassing one of the largest private collections in the world.[7] Their collecting expanded following the birth of their son Khalil as a way of documenting where he came from outside of narratives focused on slavery.[2] Pieces from their collection has toured extensively across the United States since 2006.[3] The collection was exhibited internationally for the first time in 2016 in Hong Kong.[7] Khalil Kinsey works closely with his parents having served as chief operating officer and curator of collection and as vice president of the Bernard and Shirley Kinsey Foundation.[8] The Kinsey family and their collection were featured on Episode 26 of the podcast This Is Love in 2020.[9]