Islah Speller
Co-Owner, Tour Guide

Islah Speller is a native of Wilmington, NC. She attended New Hanover High School and Cape Fear Community College, where she furthered her education in the medical field. Ms. Speller is a National Certified Health Unit Coordinator, Medical/Clinical Assistant, and a member of the American Society of Clinical Pathology. She has worked in specialty areas of health care for the past 27 years.

She served the community in many volunteer roles, including as a member of the Technical Advisory Committee for the New Hanover County Blue Ribbon Commission. She currently serves on the NHC Adult Care Home CAC and is a certified Community Advisory Committee Volunteer for the NC Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program. She has also served on the Commission on the Prevention of Youth Violence. Ms. Speller spearheaded a unique initiative providing affordable housing to the underserved. Her activism to restore African-American history to our community began in 1996, when she began a ten-year campaign to rebuild community and stop violence.

Thanks to her dedication and with the support of her husband and foundation co-founder, D. Damiyr Speller, her brother and co-founder, the late Darryl E. Goodwin, and Friends of Community Hospital aided in the support of the Burnett-Eaton Museum Foundation, a nonprofit opened in Dec. 2006 dedicated to empowering community through education about African–American history, which also received the Public Organization of the Year award in 2008 by the MPA Program at UNCW. She is a recipient of the 2011 YWCA Cape Fear Women of Achievement award (Rachael Freeman Unsung Hero). She served on the Historic Wilmington Foundation Plaque Committee. In 2017, she gave a African–American walking tour with C-Span city tour staff which can be viewed on C-Span.org. Islah was awarded a Trailblazer Certificate of Recognition by the historic St. Stephen AME Church in 2020.

Islah has been building and curating the museum, preserving history, and building capacity for 17 years. Her community involvement and dedication is building community cohesion.

D. Damiyr Speller
Co-Owner, Tour Guide

Mr. Speller is a native of Virginia and graduate of John J. High. After high school, he entered the USMC and served on the USS Oklahoma City during the Iran Hostage Crisis. The ship, decommissioned in Oklahoma City, is now a museum. He has received medals and honor while serving.

D. Damiyr was a middleweight boxer in Brooklyn, NY, earned a brown belt in Okinawa karate under Sensei Goshin Ryu, and studied photography at Cape Fear Technical Institute in Wilmington, NC. He is also a self-taught artist in charcoal, acrylics, oils, and pencil.

D. Damiyr works as a Commercial Driver and also maintains a unique initiative, "Keeping Families Together Under One Roof," providing affordable housing to the underserved.