More than three years after a plan for a National Juneteenth Museum was hatched, developers have secured land in Fort Worth.
The city of Fort Worth will lease property to the museum on the city’s south side, where the Southside Community Center now sits. The museum will pay $1 a year for the 40-year lease.
In addition, city council members voted Tuesday to contribute up to $15 million for the museum’s development.
Council member Chris Nettles said the museum should be on the city’s south side rather than in the Museum District, which is home to the Kimbell Museum and Modern Art Museum.
“We can’t lose our history, because our history is who we are. The National Juneteenth Museum is going to bring that history to Fort Worth,” Nettles said. “It is going to be a beacon of light.”
Attendees cheered the vote. Fort Worth’s Opal Lee, the so-called “grandmother of Juneteenth” stood and gave two thumbs to city council members.
City leaders first proposed the idea of demolishing the community center to make way for the museum late last year. The center, which is more than 50 years old, has fallen into disrepair.
The museum’s original location, also on the south side, fell through after it was unable to secure the necessary plots of land.
Community services will move less than a half mile away to the Hazel Harvey Peace Center.
Museum leaders have pushed back the groundbreaking and opening date multiple times. The museum initially planned to open in 2024.
As part of the agreement with the city, the museum must break ground on or before Oct. 31, 2027. The resolution initially gave a deadline of October 2026, but Nettles requested the deadline be delayed a year.
So far, the museum has raised more than $40 million, more than half of its $70 million goal to begin construction, according to the Fort Worth Report.
The 50,000-square-foot museum will tell the story behind Juneteenth while exploring the larger theme of global freedom. It will house gallery space, a business incubator, food hall, courtyard, green space and a 250-seat theater for lectures, performances and speakers.
Juneteenth recognizes the day in 1865 that Union troops arrived in Galveston to inform enslaved people of their freedom, about 2½ years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.
Lee, who is 98 years old, made it her mission to draw attention to the holiday. In 2016, she made her way from Fort Worth to Washington, D.C., walking 2½ miles in several cities along the way to represent the 2½ years it took for news of the Emancipation Proclamation to reach Galveston.
In 2021, then-President Joe Biden, with Lee at his side, signed into law a bill declaring Juneteenth a national holiday. She continues to walk every year on June 19, now with hundreds following her.
Check out was real simple, can't wait for the tote bag