National Juneteenth Museum Will Open In Honor Of Historic Slave Emancipation Day
Image via The White House
This year, on June 17, US President Joe Biden signed a bill declaring Juneteenth a federal holiday. Now, plans have been announced to open a National Juneteenth Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, which will be built on the site currently occupied by the memorial building.
The special day commemorates the day Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865, to emancipate African American slaves from their former owners.
“For decades, Juneteenth has been part of the fabric of our city, and this museum is a welcome addition to its incredible legacy,” said Forth Worth Mayor Mattie Parker.
According to Artnet News, the current Juneteenth Museum is run by 95-year-old Opal Lee, who had been a part of the campaign to make the date a national holiday. In 2016, Lee walked two and a half miles each day from Fort Worth to Washington DC, symbolizing the number of years it took for news of emancipation to reach enslaved people in Texas.
“To have lived long enough to see my walking and talking make an impact is one thing, but to know that a state-of-the-art museum that will house the actual pen that President Biden used to sign the bill, and many other exhibits, is coming to pass as well—I could do my holy dance again,” Lee said.
The new museum will be undertaken by local marketing firm The Sable Group, which said the museum will not be an expansion of its current iteration but will be a wholly new development with a national identity.
“The new museum will be the world’s premier Juneteenth exhibit space and tourist destination,” the company said.
To curate the museum’s new exhibits, the firm plans to work with activists, historians, and researchers to come up with educational programs informing visitors of slavery, and how African American people have overcome past oppression.
Work on the site is expected to begin next year, with The Sable Group aiming to raise US$25 million to US$30 million to help with its cost.
“It’s just going to be a wonderful exhibit of freedom all across the country and the world. The exhibits that we’re going to build will be interactive, not just stuff folks look at, but they can feel and touch and be a part of, because our goal is to help people find themselves in the Juneteenth story,” said Dione Sims, the director of the upcoming museum.
[via Artnet News, cover image via The White House]
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