But Lee, now 95 and known as “the grandmother of the Juneteenth” – or more affectionately as “Ms. Opal “- wanted a more permanent foundation to celebrate the end of slavery in the United States. This vision is getting closer to reality as plans for the Juneteenth National Museum move forward, a $ 70 million project that aims to put a shovel in the ground before the end of the year and open in time for the 2024 Juneteenth Vacation. The 50,000-square-foot museum, designed by the architectural firm Bjarke Ingels Group, or BIG, will explore the events of June 19, 1865, when Major Gordon Granger in Galveston, Texas issued General Order No. 3. state that – according to the Declaration of Emancipation – “all slaves are free”. The 13th Amendment, ratified months later, abolished slavery in the last four border states that had not been submitted to President Abraham Lincoln. “The designs are beautiful. “He is out of chain,” Lee said in an interview. “June means freedom for me. “We want people to understand the past, we do not want it to be weakened.” The museum, which will have an important educational element, will also help ensure that the country does not let slavery “happen again”, added Lee, who has been nominated for the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize. if we are complacent “. The project, on the corner of Rosedale Street and Evans Avenue in Fort Worth, seeks to revitalize the surrounding area, which declined in the 1960s after splitting from the I-35W motorway. A 2019 study conducted by data company MySidewalk showed the median household income in the area at about $ 26,000 and that one-third of the population lives below the federal poverty line. The development will include a business incubator to promote black entrepreneurship, a dining room that will feature culturally black cuisine from local vendors, a flexible performance space and a theater. “It’s a neighborhood like many across the country that has fallen victim to neglect and neglect,” said Jarred Howard, executive director of the project developer Sable Brands, a marketing team. “For most of the last 30 years or so, the neighborhood has been oppressed and destitute. This development will be a catalyst in the revival of economic and cultural health “. Howard added that the project hopes to establish “a corridor for the black trade”, attracting other new businesses to the area. The city is already developing a $ 13.2 million urban village of Evans & Rosedale just north of the museum, with apartments and mansions. “For decades, the Juneteenth has been part of our city’s web,” Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker said in a statement in 2021, “and this museum is a welcome addition to its incredible heritage.” The museum has so far been funded by private donations from individuals, companies and institutions. also seeks state support. The aim is to offer free admission, which is ensured by the raising of funds and the revenue-generating aspects of mixed-use development. The museum initially forecasts an annual attendance of 35,000, an increase of 10 percent each year, Howard said. The design of the building – in collaboration with local architects KAI, a minority company – will use materials such as heavy wood and will be based on the local architecture of the gabled roofs and protruding terraces. “It will have a handmade quality,” said Douglass Alligood, the BIG partner in charge of the project, adding that he hoped the building would convey “spiritual uplift” following Lee’s example. “He wanted to make sure stories were being told and he wanted to pay tribute to those we turned our backs on,” Alligood said. “It’s not about her, it’s about our ancestors.” Alligood said the project was particularly popular with him as a Black Architect. “This kind of project in an African American community that focuses on African American culture is a unique opportunity in my career,” he said. “Historic Southside prospered before the highway crossed and split it in half. “I do not think a building will solve everything or change history, but it gives me the opportunity to have evidence in a way that could be really important.” Although Galveston is the Texas location most associated with the Juneteenth, “the national narrative is one we hope to focus on,” said Dione Sims, Lee’s granddaughter and the museum’s founding director. The museum will tell a broad story of emancipation, highlighting allies such as the Quakers, who helped graze people for freedom in the North. white and black societies abolished. the southern subway in Mexico. and people like Sam Houston, who, as president of the Republic of Texas in 1837, banned the illegal importation of slaves into Texas. “It’s a holiday for everyone because everyone can be found in the history of the Juneteenth,” Sims said. “This is the mission and goal of the Juneteenth National Museum.” Lee traveled two and a half miles every day in 2016 to symbolize the two and a half years between the Emancipation Proclamation and June 19, 1865, when that message reached Galveston, where the Black Texans were still slaves. In 2020, a Change.org report was launched that garnered more than 1.5 million signatures, which it presented to Congress. He was honored in the White House in 2021 as President Biden signed the bill setting out the new holiday. “You can not talk much about the history of the country,” he said. “You can not talk much about what is still pervasive in our culture, in our national narrative, that affects so many lives today: systemic racism that has its roots in slavery. “Freedom from slavery, or the emancipation of the human spirit, is what we are going to help elevate.”
