Although it’s still in the building stages for its opening in a few years, one south suburban museum is eager to begin showcasing accomplishments of African-Americans who have made a difference locally.

The soon-to-be built South Suburban Museum of African American History will focus on a variety of African-Americans who have made positive contributions to the south suburbs, such as Columbia President Warrick L. Carter, said David Johnson, former mayor of Harvey, Ill., and president of the museum’s board of trustees.

The museum’s board of trustees will be hosting events at various Chicagoland venues, honoring several African-Americans who will be featured when the museum opens. Carter is being recognized for his accomplishments in music and higher education at a later date, Johnson said.

According to the Columbia website, Carter attended Tennessee University, taught at Governor State University, was the dean of faculty and provost at Berklee College of Music in Boston-one of the nation’s most distinguished music academies- and director of Entertainment Arts for Walt Disney before coming to Columbia in 2000.

Johnson said he and Carter met each other during the now Columbia President’s tenure from 1971 to 1984 at GSU in University Park, Ill. Johnson is one of his former students, who took a class Carter taught on black music history and culture.

“We’re understandably proud of Dr. Carter,” Johnson said. “I mentioned him in our press release as an example of someone from the south suburbs who has made a regional, national and even an international contribution. I think he’s a classic example of that.”

Johnson also said Carter was a well-known musician in the jazz group Cancer Leo when he met the president while he was at GSU.

“They got their name because everyone in the band was either a Cancer or a Leo,” Johnson said.

He also said Carter was unaware he was intended to be part of the museum. Micki Leventhal, director of media relations at Columbia, said Carter seemed pleased to be part of Johnson’s efforts, but wanted to refrain from comment until he can find out more details about the museum and his exhibit.

Johnson said fundraising efforts to help the building process along will continue on Feb. 28 with a tribute to Dr. Margaret Burroughs, a painter and poet from the South Side of Chicago who founded the Du Sable Museum of African American History.

Johnson said Carter would be honored in the same fashion as Burroughs at a later date, but she was Johnson’s first choice because of her involvement with the Du Sable museum.

“She challenged Alderman Kevin Perkins of Chicago Heights to start the museum,” Johnson said. “I started working with him and we’re steadily chipping away at the goal of building a museum in this region.”

Burroughs said she founded Du Sable in her living room in 1961 and she “probably did something to help them get started.” She said she intends to continue helping, by contributing prints for the museum’s silent auction on Feb. 28 in her honor.

“Now there are about 200 black history museums in existence, and some of them are coming into existence right now,” she said. “I do whatever I can to encourage them.”

As far as other contributions, Johnson is hoping Columbia will encourage some of its students, faculty and staff to help set up what he hopes will be a “state of the art museum.”

Johnson said he was impressed with the creativity of the graduation commencement ceremony for his daughter, a 2005 alumna, incorporating film and music, which made Columbia one of his top choices to help with the museum.

“We want to do something that will be creative,” he said. “Columbia is a perfect institution to provide technical assistance to the museum we desire to build here.”