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Shadow boxes shed light on African American history

Martin Luther King Jr., she admits, looked a little funny at first.

His head was too big, his cheekbones were too low, his eyes were kind of lopsided. And his lower lip?

"Let's not even go there," Karen Collins, 60, said with a laugh....

Her pint-size creations fill nearly every inch of her living room in Compton. On her carpet slaves in chains await their transatlantic voyage. On her fireplace mantel, protesters gather for the Montgomery bus boycott. And on her entertainment center, Malcolm X preaches to the Nation of Islam.

She calls it the African American Miniature Museum, and it took her nearly 15 years to build. Soon, she will have a permanent display place at Leimert Park Village....

Read entire article at LA Times