{"id":460561,"date":"2026-10-08T22:46:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T22:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/460561\/"},"modified":"2026-10-08T22:46:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T22:46:10","slug":"church-donates-3-million-to-juneteenth-museum-church-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/460561\/","title":{"rendered":"Church donates $3 million to Juneteenth museum \u2013 Church News"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will donate $3 million to the construction of National Juneteenth Museum in Fort Worth, Texas. <\/p>\n

The donation was announced at a gathering of community leaders and supporters in Fort Worth on Wednesday, Oct. 7 \u2014 which coincided with the 100th birthday of Dr. Opal Lee, the civil rights activist known as the \u201cGrandmother of Juneteenth.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cWe celebrate all as brothers and sisters, sons and daughters of the living God,\u201d said Elder Michael A. Dunn<\/a>, General Authority Seventy and president of the Church\u2019s United States Southwest Area.<\/p>\n

As part of the Church\u2019s donation, plans for the museum include a genealogy center intended to help visitors discover and preserve family histories through experiences powered by FamilySearch, according to a news release on ChurchofJesusChrist.org<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\"ArtisticArtistic renderings of the National Juneteenth Museum coming to Fort Worth, Texas, show what a genealogy center could look like. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints donated $3 million toward the museum’s construction and a genealogy center on Oct. 7, 2026. | The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints <\/p>\n

The genealogy center will place particular emphasis on helping preserve records and stories that have historically been difficult for many African American families to trace and document.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor generations, slavery hid the names and stories of millions of African American ancestors,\u201d Elder Dunn said, as reported<\/a> by FortWorthReport.org<\/a>. \u201cMany organizations, including The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, are now recovering and recording these histories as an act of honor and healing.\u201d <\/p>\n

In her brief remarks, Lee said this deed won\u2019t go unnoticed. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019ll be where everybody can see how much you appreciated what we are doing in this community \u2014 and this is everybody\u2019s contribution,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Dr. Opal Lee <\/p>\n

For years, Lee campaigned for a national Juneteenth holiday to commemorate the day when news of emancipation reached enslaved Black Americans in Texas on June 19, 1865, more than two years after Abraham Lincoln\u2019s Emancipation Proclamation. Her campaigning was successful, and in 2021, then-President Joe Biden made Juneteenth a federal holiday in the United States. <\/p>\n

\"Dr.Dr. Opal Lee, civil rights activist known as the \u201cGrandmother of Juneteenth,\u201d arrives at the site of the future National Juneteenth Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, on Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints donated $3 million for the museum’s construction and the building of a genealogy center in the museum. | The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints <\/p>\n

Lee also operated a small museum inside her home for many years, which included artifacts related to Black history. <\/p>\n

Once completed, the new 50,000-square-foot museum will include exhibition galleries, educational spaces, a theater, community gathering areas and resources designed to support both cultural preservation and neighborhood development.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe National Juneteenth Museum is going to allow us to really help people everywhere understand what Dr. Lee has represented \u2014 her tenacity, her verve, her unrelenting quest to be able to bring truth and light to this story of our nation that still needs to be told,\u201d Elder Dunn said. <\/p>\n

This donation from the Church came after years of collaborative efforts in north Texas among community members and members of the Church. Church members and leaders have participated in local Juneteenth celebrations, supported the Opal Lee Walk for Freedom and served those in need in the community. <\/p>\n

In addition to the $3 million donation toward the museum\u2019s construction and the genealogy center, the Church delivered a semitruck with 38,000 pounds of food to the Midwest Food Bank in Fort Worth, Texas, on Wednesday, Oct. 7. The Midwest Food Bank and four other food pantries in the area will share the goods in the shipment. <\/p>\n

\"AA semitruck delivers food to Midwest Food Bank in Fort Worth, Texas, in October 2026 as part of the Church’s effort to honor the nation\u2019s 250th anniversary by delivering 250 truckloads of food and essential supplies to 250 food banks across the country. Midwest Food Bank and four other food pantries in the area will share the goods in this shipment. | The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints <\/p>\n

Throughout 2026, as the United States celebrates its 250th year<\/a>, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has celebrated with the donation of 250 food trucks donated to 250 food banks across the country.<\/p>\n

A similar donation<\/a> was unloaded by Latter-day Saint volunteers last month in Cedar Park, Texas. <\/p>\n

The Church has also supported efforts to expand access to African American family history records through projects such as the Freedmen\u2019s Bureau Project<\/a>, the 10 Million Names Project<\/a> and the International African American Museum<\/a> in South Carolina.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will donate $3 million to the construction of National Juneteenth…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":460562,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[157488,116,118,117],"class_list":["post-460561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-worth","tag-family-history","tag-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth-headlines","tag-fort-worth-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=460561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460561\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/460562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=460561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=460561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=460561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}