The Fort Worth City Council has unanimously approved plans for the National Juneteenth Museum to be built on the city's Near Southside. The museum will replace the Southside Community Center at Rosedale and New York Avenue.
"I think it's very important to the City of Fort Worth and even to the nation that we continue to tell our story, our history," says Councilman Chris Nettles.
Juneteenth marks the date Union troops arrived in Galveston after the Civil War to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation. June 19 was made a federal holiday in 2021.
Opal Lee, a Fort Worth resident who is now 98 years old, led the effort to establish Juneteenth as a holiday. Lee attended the meeting Tuesday night.
"We would not be here without Dr. Opal Lee," says Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker. "She truly is a force for good."
The resolution passed Tuesday night included up to $15 million to be donated by the city for the museum's construction. The city would also require a feasibility study and business plan "demonstrating that the museum's ongoing operations are economically and financially feasible without City subsidy."
The council approved an amendment to extend the deadline to start construction from October 2026 to October 2027.
Fort Worth will lease the land to the museum for $1 a year for 40 years. The city will move services provided at the community center to the Hazel Harvey Peace Center a few blocks away.
"This resolution is a reassurance of our commitment to the $15 million we want to give to the National Juneteenth Museum and also affirming we have not and will not forget about our community," Nettles says.
The non-profit raising money for the museum says it has raised $40 million of $70 million needed. Organizers say the museum would serve as a cultural center and include a theater and business incubator.
"Everything Juneteenth, everything freedom is going to be right here in the City of Fort Worth," says Museum Board Chair Angela Mitchell. "This is an amazing opportunity for us."
Mitchell says the museum's design will incorporate the Juneteenth flag and shotgun houses in the neighborhood.
"There's just been a lot of intentionality that has gone into the architecture and into the design," she says. "I think it is a beautiful thing."
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