KTRK-13’s Deborah Wrigley reports that some fourth-ward residents are not happy that there’s been no movement on an African-American museum:
It’s been almost two years and still there’s no museum or cultural center in the historic Freedmen’s town. It’s in the fourth ward area — an area in the sights of developers. Residents say the city promised the project would be done so why does the building stand empty today and why are residents concerned?
House by house, Freedman’s town is slowly losing its identity. A way to counteract that is the African American heritage museum and community center to be installed in an empty and old school building there. But that’s not happening on schedule, and that’s an issue for the neighborhood.
[snip]
Two years then-mayor Lee Brown was part of the ground-breaking at the school. It was approved as the site for an African American cultural museum and promoted as such.
“This started in the 80’s,” said activist Lenwood Johnson. “The most recent time was two years ago. The newspaper announced they had $6 million to turn this into a museum. We don’t see nothing happening.”
A spokesman for Mayor Bill White says that the project is indeed ongoing — that architectural plans have been completed and that a steering committee will be meeting later this month to decide what features and documents the center will include. A date for construction is pending.
Expect the construction to begin before the upcoming municipal elections.
It would be interesting to know how the museum will be funded, since KHOU-11’s reporting last year indicated that Council pulled funding for the project.
