New York is getting its first-ever museum dedicated to the American civil rights movement.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of focus on the Southern experience \u2014 segregation, slavery and overcoming it,\u201d said National Urban Justice League CEO and President Marc Moriel. \u201cWhat\u2019s not widely known is that slavery existed in the north.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Urban Civil Rights Museum in Harlem<\/a> aims to change that, showing how northern cities like New York have been shaped by this history. Programming, as well as permanent and rotating exhibits, will focus on topics including the Harlem Renaissance, the Great Migration and social justice.<\/p>\n The museum is set to open this fall in an approximately 20,000-square-foot space within the Urban Justice League\u2019s new 400,000-square-foot Manhattan headquarters at 117 West 125th St., across the street from the new Studio Museum<\/a>.<\/p>\n The 17-story, $242 million building had its ribbon cutting at a ceremony attended by Gov. Kathy Hochul, the Rev. Al Sharpton and state Sen. Kirstin Gillibrand. In addition to the museum, it also contains office and retail space for nonprofits and minority-owned businesses, 170 affordable apartments and a 10,000-square-foot civil engagement-focused conference center.<\/p>\n Previously, the National Urban League was based in the Financial District. The move uptown thus represents a back-to-its-roots moment, as the group was founded in Harlem in 1910. Originally, it was called the National League on Urban Conditions Among Negroes.<\/p>\n This autumn\u2019s opening is pegged, if a bit belatedly in the year, to America\u2019s 250th anniversary. The timing is also significant in that it comes in a moment Mayor Mamdani described as<\/a> one “when we are being taught as if the words DEI are that of a slur, when in fact what they are is a representation of the fulfillment of the ideals that make so many proud to be New Yorkers.\u201d<\/p>\n