National Juneteenth Museum adds $3 million as site work begins

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has committed $3 million toward the National Juneteenth Museum in Fort Worth, Texas. The gift was announced on Wednesday, October 7, at a celebration of Opal Lee's 100th birthday that also began clearing the museum's site. Lee, known as the "grandmother of Juneteenth," was a driving force in making Juneteenth a federal holiday, the Associated Press reported.

Crews demolished the former Southside Community Center to make way for the planned 50,000-square-foot museum. The museum has raised $55 million of its $70 million goal to start building, the Fort Worth Report said, which by our arithmetic leaves $15 million to raise.

A campaign that has taken longer than planned

Plans for the museum were announced in December 2021 with an initial goal of opening in 2026, and fundraising and land hurdles have pushed its completion date back several times, the Fort Worth Report said. Museum CEO Jarred Howard said the project is expected to break ground in the coming months but did not give an exact completion date, according to the Report. The AP reported that the museum is projected to open in 2029.

"This is an incredible day in the history of our movement, in the history of the Southside, in the history of the city of Fort Worth," Howard said. "This is not the end. This is the beginning."

The plans include 10,000-square-foot galleries, a 250-seat theater, a business incubator, a black box theater and a food hall, the Report said.

What the gift pays for

The church's gift goes toward construction of the museum and a genealogy center where visitors will be able to explore FamilySearch's digital collections free of charge, the Fort Worth Report said. The church said the center will focus on records and stories that have historically been hard for many African American families to trace. It also gave 38,000 pounds of food and other supplies to five local food banks the same day.

"I'm so happy I could do a holy dance, and these old legs won't respond, but let me tell you how thankful I am and that this deed won't go unnoticed," Lee said, according to the AP.

In our view, the museum's timeline is a familiar one for capital campaigns. The land and the last dollars often take longer than the first gifts, and a public milestone like this one is a chance to ask for the rest. Our story on restricted gifts covers the promises that come with money given for a building.