International African American Museum finally opening

A long-awaited museum of Black American history built on the site of a former South Carolina slave port is finally opening its doors to the public after over two decades of planning. Charleston’s International African American Museum (IAAM), opening next Tuesday, June 27, has been in the works since 2000, when the city’s former Mayor Joseph P. Riley, Jr. first announced plans for the historic institution. Since then, the museum has raised nearly $100 million in funds to support its construction, which began in 2019.

The museum’s inauguration will come a little over a week after the celebration of Juneteenth in the United States, held tomorrow, June 19. Recognized as a federal holiday beginning in 2021, Juneteenth commemorates the day when enslaved African-American people in Texas learned of their emancipation on June 19, 1865 — months after the end of the Civil War and over two years after President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.

About a mile from city hall, the museum was built on the site of Gadsden’s Wharf, where an estimated 100,000 enslaved African individuals disembarked between 1783 and 1807. The new museum will explore the historical and cultural impact of the African diaspora on local, national, and international scales through an empathetic, critical storytelling lens.

The new museum will explore the historical and cultural impact of the African diaspora on local, national, and international scales through an empathetic, critical storytelling lens.