The Fort Worth City Council recently approved funding for an African American Museum and Cultural Center in the city. (TexasMates/CC BY-SA 4.0).
On Tuesday, the Fort Worth City Council approved funding for the Fort Worth African American Museum and Cultural Center. Here’s what you need to know.
On Tuesday, the Fort Worth City Council approved the reallocation of funds toward the Fort Worth African American Museum and Cultural Center. In 2022, the city donated $40,000 to help find the best possible site for the new museum, which is being established to preserve the culture, history, stories, and legacy of the city’s African American community. John Barnett, the museum’s chairman, spoke with the Fort Worth Report about the exciting development. He emphasized, though, that they don’t currently have a projected timeline for when the museum will be completed and open to the public.
Barnett said they were hopeful that the museum and cultural center would open “sometime within this calendar year.” He added, “Our goal is to present a quality institution that we are proud of and that will accommodate our vision and mission. When we’re ready, we’ll shout it from the rooftop.” This project has been in the works since 2020, when an African American Steering Committee subcommittee, Fort Worth’s Neighborhood Services Department, and the Fort Worth Housing Solutions worked together to determine criteria for the museum.
Then, in 2022, after receiving the $40,000 in funds from the city, three sites were chosen as possible locations for the African American Museum and Cultural Center. Ultimately, it was determined that the two buildings comprising the museum would be established in Fort Worth’s Polytechnic Heights neighborhood.
Details about the African American Museum and Cultural Center
On January 6, Fort Worth’s Neighborhood Services was notified that the nonprofit organization funding the city’s African American Museum and Cultural Center had bought two units within an existing building located at 3100 and 3104 East Rosedale Street (across from Texas Wesleyan University). They requested allocation of funds to improve these units, though it’s unclear as of writing what work needs, or needed, to be done.
The museum will feature community programming along with curated exhibits about Black residents and their stories. Additional projects in Fort Worth—separate from the African American Museum and Cultural Center—highlighting Black history are also in development. Another nonprofit is establishing a community arts center in what was once a Ku Klux Klan hall in the city’s Northside. That site will be dedicated to honoring the memory of Fred Rouse, a Black man who was lynched in 1921 by a white mob. The site where the current Southside Community Center is located will be transformed into the National Juneteenth Museum after additional funding is raised for that project.
More information about the Fort Worth African American Museum and Cultural Center is expected to be available in the coming months, including opening dates, exhibits, and programming schedules.
This article first appeared on Good Info News Wire and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Related: Remembering Cleo Hearn: Visionary Behind Cowboys of Color Rodeo Dies at 86
