Tampa leaders announce new Black history museum

Share
Future home of Tampa's Black History Museum // Chris Young 6/17/24

Listen:

The Tampa Bay History Center and Tampa Housing Authority announced plans for a new Black history museum in the city. It’ll be located in a formerly thriving Black business district.

City leaders including Tampa Mayor Jane Castor announced the new museum.

“One of the benefits of looking back at our history as well, is to remember the lessons learned, the mistakes made, so that we don’t make those mistakes again as we walk forward.”

It will be at the building of the St. James Episcopal Church. The church was founded over 100 years ago, and underwent a more than 2 million dollar restoration. 

The museum will be in a historically Black area formerly known as the Scrub, northeast of downtown Tampa. It was a thriving Black district, but then declared a slum in the 1950s.

City Council member Gwen Henderson sees the new museum becoming a top destination for residents and visitors.   

“Once upon a time, city council called this area  a cancerous eyesore. It is no longer that.”  

Tampa Bay History  center officials say they are in the very early stages. 

They are in the process of planning the exhibits and artifacts for the museum, and promise something for everyone.  

They anticipate it will open late next year.

 

 

Leave a Reply

  • (will not be published)

XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

You may also like

Tampa faith org asks local leaders to commit to funding affordable housing

Listen: Faith leaders and advocates in Hillsborough County are calling...

The Scoop: Mon. April 7, 2025, Tampa Bay and Florida headlines by WMNF

Roundup of news headlines produced for WMNF Community Radio: HANDS...

FPREN cold front weather
Storms followed by cooler temperatures for Florida: the last cold front?

Even South Florida will be impacted by some storms on...

Thousands of protesters in Tampa part of nationwide Hands Off rally

Marches and rallies spanning from coast to coast across the...

Ways to listen

WMNF is listener-supported. That means we don't advertise like a commercial station, and we're not part of a university.

Ways to support

WMNF volunteers have fun providing a variety of needed services to keep your community radio station alive and kickin'.

Mo' Blues Monday
Mo' Blues Monday