Fort Worth is one of the fastest growing cities in the country. New projects are underway that could put it on the map for honoring and celebrating Black history. NBC 5’s Tahera Rahman takes us behind three new museums in development.
There are three different projects in Fort Worth to preserve Black history in the city and beyond, and organizers say it may make the city a hub for Black history.
NATIONAL JUNETEENTH MUSEUM COMES TO FORT WORTH
The National Juneteenth Museum will educate the public on the newest national holiday, which commemorates the day in 1865 when slaves in Texas learned they were free, two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed.
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It will also honor the work done by Miss Opal Lee who spent decades working to make Juneteenth a national holiday.
"Oh, I am ecstatic if that's a word I can use," said Lee. "I've been wanting this for so long, you know."
The museum's location on the city's Southside will also serve to educate, as it is home to an important figure in Fort Worth's history.
National Juneteenth Museum
"Texas's first black millionaire was a Fort Worth guy. His name was William Madison McDonald," said National Juneteenth Museum CEO Jarred Howard.
Howard said the neighborhood's zip code, 76104, holds Texas' shortest life expectancy and highest infant mortality rate.
"And so, a community like this needs a lot more than just a museum. And we're bringing more than just a museum," he said.
The 50,000 square foot cultural center is expected to host events in its amphitheater, and will also have a food hall.
"We'll also have a business incubator for burgeoning entrepreneurs to come and hone their craft," said Howard. "That's the place where the resources and the people that need them meet."
The group just received it's first corporate donor, he said, with BNSF Railway's $2 million donation on Feb. 20.
Construction is expected to start later this year. It is expected to open on June 19, 2025,.
FRED ROUSE CENTER FOR ARTS AND COMMUNITY HEALING
A building at 1012 N. Main St labeled 'Ellis Pecan Co.' once served as the headquarters for the Ku Klux Klan in Fort Worth, it will become the Fred Rouse Center for Arts and Community Healing.
Mr. Fred Rouse was a black father and butcher in Fort Worth who was lynched in 1921. A memorial already sits at the intersection where he was killed, NE 12 Street and Samuels Avenue, about a mile away from the future center in his name.
Fort Worth Assistant City Manager Fernando Costa says the center serves as poetic justice for some, celebrating all communities historically targeted by the Klan.
Fred Rouse Center for Arts and Community Healing
“It’s highly ironic, in that sense,” said Costa. “Using the performing, visual arts, as a platform to bring people together and promote healing in the community.”
Nonprofits have been working to raise $35 million for the project, it's expected to take several years to fix up and open.
FORT WORTH AFRICAN AMERICAN MUSEUM AND CULTURAL CENTER
The third project, the proposed African American Museum, is in the earliest stage of the three, with no confirmed location, just yet.
The Fort Worth Community Arts Center in the city's cultural district is one of the locations being considered.
The museum and cultural center would highlight the city's most prominent leaders.
"African Americans who played a vital role in our history and in the development of our culture since our founding. That part of Fort Worth history has not been shared as broadly as we think it should be," Costa said.
He said the city has received other request for proposals for the community art center and is deciding what to do with that site but that if the museum doesn't go there, they plan to find another home for it in the city.
“Many folks don’t tend to associate Fort Worth with a rich black heritage, but I think that’s precisely why it’s important for us to make these efforts; to lift up that part of history that has been largely untold," Costa said.
Three unique perspectives to preserve important stories in a fast-growing Fort Worth, and perhaps making it a destination for future generations to experience Black history.
"As the country matures and creates new history, it's important that we mark the space in previous history," said Howard.
