A Museum Dedicated to Civil Rights Is Opening In Harlem

A new museum that is dedicated to the Civil Rights Movement will be opening in Harlem, New York, this summer, thanks to the National Urban League. The Urban Civil Rights Museum will be New York City’s first institution dedicated to the movement, with a focus on how it played out in Northern U.S. cities. 

The museum is slated to open in June in coordination with the organization’s anniversary, and will be housed in the Empowerment Center, which is the National Urban League’s recently opened headquarters in Harlem. In a recent commemoration of the center, National Urban League CEO Marc Morial stated that the new building “is a declaration that we will not be erased, that our history matters, and that our communities deserve investment—not neglect.” 

“It would be misleading to present the history of the northern cities outside the context of the Atlantic Slave Trade and the institutionalized enslavement of African people and their descendants,” said Urban Civil Rights Museum Executive Director Jennifer Scott in a press statement. “What did it really mean to be a free Black New Yorker, pre-Civil War, when states as nearby as New Jersey were still enslaving people, and how complicated was the idea of freedom at that time?” 

The Urban Civil Rights Museum will also focus on earlier eras of the movement, such as the establishment of the free Black and independent community in Weeksville, Brooklyn, in the 19th Century as an example. Scott was previously a public historian at the Weeksville Heritage Center earlier in her career. In addition, the social and artistic renaissance periods in Chicago, Detroit, and Washington, D.C., among other cities
will be covered.

There will be rotating exhibitions in the space, as well as immersive experiences for patrons who visit. There will also be a planned cafe and retail space. For more information, those interested can check out their website.