This yr, the Nationwide City League is increasing its mission of supporting African American and underserved communities to incorporate a brand new historical past preservation arm. Not too long ago, the group’s president and CEO, Marc Morial, introduced plans to launch the “City Civil Rights Museum in Harlem.”
Housed throughout the Nationwide City League’s newly opened “Empowerment Heart,” which serves because the group’s headquarters, the museum will reportedly supply a singular glimpse into the Northern civil rights motion. Describing the Empowerment middle as a “beacon,” Morial says the brand new constructing “is a declaration that we are going to not be erased, that our historical past issues, and that our communities deserve funding—not neglect.”
“The Nationwide City League has all the time been a bridge between aspiration and achievement, between coverage and other people,” he added in a press launch. “This Empowerment Heart strengthens that bridge, connecting Harlem’s storied previous to its promising future, linking our nationwide mission to native impression, and uniting generations of battle with generations of success.”
At a time when Individuals are witnessing intense efforts to censor, erase, and alter historical past, the City League CEO underlined the racial motivations behind these efforts, whereas additionally affirming the group leaders’ persistent dedication to inform and protect our tales. By way of everlasting interactive installations, rotating reveals, and immersive instructional experiences, the City Civil Rights Museum in Harlem’s mission is to “interpret, doc, and share the tales of the lengthy and ongoing battle for justice and civil rights in Northern city environments throughout America.”
“It could be deceptive to current the historical past of the northern cities exterior the context of the Atlantic Slave Commerce and the institutionalized enslavement of African individuals and their descendants,” stated Jennifer Scott, the newly-appointed Government Director, Chief & Curator for the City Civil Rights Museum, in a press launch. “What did it actually imply to be a free Black New Yorker, pre-Civil Conflict, when states as close by as New Jersey have been nonetheless enslaving individuals, and the way difficult was the thought of freedom at the moment?”
As the primary museum in New York Metropolis devoted to the American Civil Rights Motion and one of many solely museums within the nation to concentrate on the motion in Northern states, the museum will discover the historical past of communities like Weeksville, a Free Black, impartial group within the nineteenth century, and extra.
She continued: “We’re actually taking an extended view of civil rights, not simply the interval of the Nineteen Fifties and Nineteen Sixties that most individuals consider because the Civil Rights Period. We’re it from the very roots of the city north, all the way in which up by means of the current day and the Black Lives Matter motion. The coverage choices and political choices which have impacted northern metropolis facilities can be introduced out, together with the completely different types of injustices and inequity.”
“We invite individuals to mirror on what introduced us to the place we’re, and the way that influences us and evokes us to maneuver ahead,” she shared, reflecting on the museum, which is described as “a neighborhood anchor and a worldwide vacation spot for studying, reflection, and empowerment.”
The City Civil Rights Museum in Harlem is predicted to open in June 2026, aligning with the Nationwide City League’s 250th anniversary. For extra particulars go to: https://urbancivilrightsmuseum.org/
