Sugar Land, Texas resident Sara Ahmed made an exciting discovery when she moved into her new home. While going through boxes left behind in the house, she discovered more than 100 intricately crafted Black dolls. These dolls consisted of gems, jewels and Bob Mackie-designed barbie dresses.
"That little nine-year-old in me immediately woke up, and I was like ‘I've never seen anything like this, it's like the most stunning thing I’ve ever seen," she told FOX 26 after discovering the dolls.
"These were not your typical Barbies that you picked up at Toys R’ Us. They were just so intricate; they had costumes and jewels."
These were not your average dolls. In fact, she discovered an extremely rare doll donning pink and green in honor of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. After spending time examining the dolls, she discovered that her new home was once owned by Phyllis Hunter. Before she passed away in 2018, Hunter was the proprietor of the Black Like Me doll museum. At its peak, it was home to nearly 6,000 rare Black dolls.
Having discovered the dolls in her new home, she is now deciding what she will do with them. Local jewelry designed Kendra Scott has proposed a partnership with Birthday Box, a Houston area nonprofit that supplies kids in marginalized communities with personalized gift boxes. Through this partnership, Ahmed will donate 50 of the dolls to the organization.
"We ask them what books they like, what types of gifts they like, what types of activities they like to do, just so we can customize the box to the child," Birthday Box Founder Seante Johnson said.
"Little girls or even boys who say that they like Barbie- we give them Barbie stuff."
Ahmed's discoveries didn't end with the dolls. She also discovered a number of letters, receipts and other personal items from the Hunter family.
"It was really cool because you found these amazing love letters from the 60s, and I found this timeline of their family dating back to like 1865," she said.
At this time, she's not completely sure what she'll do with those more personal items.
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