America’s Black Holocaust Museum in Milwaukee has announced a $10 million gift from an anonymous donor to help reopen the museum in February 2022.

Made through the Greater Milwaukee Foundation, the gift includes an initial grant of $5 million and a future commitment of an additional $5 million. Founded by James Cameron — a survivor of a lynching in Indiana, who later became a civil rights activist — to build public awareness of the harmful legacies of slavery and Jim Crow and promote racial repair, reconciliation, and healing, the original museum operated in a brick-and-mortar building from 1988 to 2008. After Cameron’s death in 2006, the museum lost the building during the Great Recession and was relaunched in 2012 as an interactive virtual museum. The gift will support the museum’s recently announced plans to reopen on the footprint of its original space in the Bronzeville Cultural and Entertainment District.

The initial grant will support expanding and enhancing the exhibits for the reopening, as well as critical operations such as the addition of key staff and community programming. The expansion will include the acquisition of an adjacent building for academic programming. The additional funding will support the long-term sustainability and development of the museum to ensure that its mission and vision can be carried out in perpetuity.

“At a time of hyperpolarization, we are in dire need of safe spaces and opportunities created to bring us together to explore difficult issues, to learn, and to celebrate our history,” said America’s Black Holocaust Museum president and CEO Robert Davis. “The reemergence of the museum is critical at this time for Bronzeville, Milwaukee, and nationally, and I am honored and humbled to continue the work and the legacy of our founder, Dr. James Cameron, as a result of this generous commitment.”

(Photo credit: BottlewoodMKE/Creative Commons)