June 17, 2021 President Biden made it official by signing into law that Juneteenth is the 12th federal holiday. And the first one since Martin Luther King Jr. Day which happened in 1983. So for the first time in my life I witnessed the signing of a new federal holiday.
What does that have to do with anything? I as well as you witnessed history. This is a memory that will live with us forever. However we feel about what happened.
In part IV of my Creative Expressions Celebrating Juneteenth series, I am focusing on how we can keep the momentum in memories going. How we can continue to tell the stories. How we can honor the past. How we can preserve the legacy that was built and that we’re building.
That’s through African American museums.
These institutions are the pillars of our history. Of our culture. Of our education that we won’t get in the classroom.
These institutions speak for us through the generations. Telling stories that may not have been widely known. Unearthing truths that will awe us.
African American museums are the quiet, overlooked keepers of the memories that mainstream society wants us all to forget.
Now I have bittersweet emotions about Juneteenth becoming a holiday. Yet, I know that the 30 museums I found in Texas will do what’s right. They will keep the significance, meaning and history of this day alive.
Alive so that it can’t be rewritten. Alive so we can house more memories that are being discovered. Alive so we control the narrative.
Each museum has their theme and difference. But one thing about them all is that are rooted in Black Texas history. And that’s all due to Juneteenth being widely celebrated across the state. At least it was in the Black communities.
Juneteenth moving forward is all about keeping the momentum in memories well funded so they stay alive.
I encourage and implore you to visit them, donate to them, tell others they exist. Do whatever you can so the institutions housing Black Texans memories keep their doors open.
Here’s a list of 30 Black Museums in Texas I found:
- Juneteenth Legacy Project
- African American Museum (Dallas)
- Brazos Valley African American Museum
- Houston Museum of African American Culture
- The Black Cowboy Museum
- Calaboose African American History Museum
- Plano African American Museum
- George Washington Carver Museum and Cultural Center
- National Multicultural Western Heritage Museum
- Rutherford B H Yates Museum
- Ashton Villa
- Lenora Rolla Heritage Center Museum
- Texas African American Museum
- Buffalo Soldiers National Museum
- Denton County’s African American Museum
- Community Artists’ Collective
- Lubbock: Caviel Museum of African American History
- Houston’s Freedmen’s Town Historic District
- African American Library at the Gregory School
- Bethel Park
- Emancipation Park – Houston
- San Antonio African American Community Archive and Museum
- Dickey Museum & Multipurpose Center
- 14 historically African-American churches in Galveston
- African American Heritage Project
- Fort Bend County Heritage Unlimited Museum
- South Dallas Cultural Center
- Juanita J. Craft Civil Rights House and Museum
- Mary Allen Black History Museum
- Houston Hip Hop Museum
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