"If not us, then who? If not now, then when?"

~ Former United States Congressional Representative and Civil Rights Leader,

John Lewis

 

The National Juneteenth Museum is opening in Fort Worth, Texas on the site of an
existing institution that commemorates the historic day.

Juneteenth celebrates the anniversary of the arrival of Union troops in Galveston, Texas
on June 19, 1865, informing enslaved African Americans of their emancipation, which had become law on January 1, 1863.

The current Juneteenth Museum was founded and run by 95-year-old Opal Lee, who advocated for the date to become a national holiday.


Lee launched a campaign in 2016 in which she walked two-and-a-half miles where invited, from Fort Worth to Washington, D.C., a distance symbolizing the two-and-a-half years it took for enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation that ended slavery in the south to reach those enslaved men and women in Texas awaiting their freedom.

 

The new museum will be the world’s premier Juneteenth exhibit space and tourist destination.


National Juneteenth Museum Home Page