Parish News

Todd Wilson, a former student of St. Thomas and president of Accelerated Laboratory Logistics! Todd has announced the creation of a massive African-American Museum that will be opened on the facility and will showcase African-American artifacts from slavery to the present time. 

City Residents Celebrate 100-year Legacy of Flourishing Black Owned and Operated Business. 
Company CEO Announces Creation of African American History Museum 

Wednesday, June 15, 2022—Columbus, Ohio-- In 1921, Columbus’ own African-American Clarence Jacobs, founded, owned and operated Jacobs Transfer Company, one of the city’s first Black-owned businesses. Through an unwavering family vision and diligence, Jacobs Transfer Company has grown from a moving and storage company to Accelerated Laboratory Logistics, a successful transfer company moving and relocating major research laboratories throughout the United States. 

Todd Wilson explains that in 1990 they were innovative and expanded their vision to contact power trucks with continuous refrigeration and freezing capabilities that could transport laboratory materials all over the country. 

“We move refrigerators and freezers of biological samples such as tissue, blood samples, and research chemicals, laboratory chemicals, research equipment within a state and from state to state,” Wilson explained. “We are also a mover for NASA.” 

The company has come a long way since its 1921 beginnings. Eleanor Warfield the 102-year-old daughter of Clarence Jacobs was there for it all and reminisces,” If my father could see how far we have come since the early days and see the rewards of his hard work and dedication, he would be extremely proud of us today.” 

Accelerated Laboratory Logistics sits on a 70,000 square foot warehouse on the city’s southside. As an historical retrospection and tribute to African Americans Black roots, CEO Wilson has announced that the owners will dedicate 36,000 square feet of the facility to the creation of an impressive and historically relevant Columbus Museum of African-American History. An historical marker from the Ohio History Collection will be dedicated on the site as a tribute to company founder Clarence Jacobs. 

“The museum is my main focal point,” states Wilson.” It will hold over 2200 rare and unique artifacts, that will chronicle the African American experience from 1700 to the present day. Our goal is to make people aware that there is a broader history that is frequently not represented in history as we all learned it, because people who are writing the “story” are coming from a different perspective, with a different agenda.” 

He adds, “Once you realize how amazing we were and that had it not been for Blacks in the Revolutionary War the “colonists” would still be under British rule.” Continuing Wilson adds, “We want to tell the realistic story from the African-American perspective, we cannot and must not sweep our story under the rug.” 

Museum items will include artifacts from days of slavery, auction blocks, slave shackles, memoirs, photographs and writings from that time period. According to Wilson, at the company’s June 10 100 year commemorative celebration, several of those in attendance were actually shedding tears as they saw the items so realistically relevant to the history and struggles of Black people. Accelerated Laboratory Logistics currently has 27 full time employees and is located at 4001 Refugee Road.

Read more about the museum from the Columbus Dispatch.