A civil rights museum is opening in Harlem this fall

"When it does, it will become the city's first museum dedicated entirely to the American civil rights movement-and one that deliberately shifts the spotlight north. For decades, civil rights history has largely been framed through a Southern lens. This museum argues that the story is incomplete. As National Urban League president and CEO Marc Morial pointed out to Gothamist , slavery existed in the North, too, and cities like New York played a critical role in shaping struggles around housing, labor, policing, education and political power."

"The museum will occupy roughly 20,000 square feet inside the National Urban League's new headquarters at 117 West 125th Street, directly across from the newly expanded Studio Museum in Harlem. That building-the 17-story Urban League Empowerment Center-is a major project in its own right: a $242 million, mixed-use development that includes office and retail space for nonprofits and minority-owned businesses, a 10,000-square-foot civic conference center and 170 units of affordable housing."

"Inside the museum, visitors can expect a permanent interactive installation alongside rotating exhibitions exploring the Harlem Renaissance, the Great Migration, Northern slavery and contemporary social justice movements. The approach is intentionally expansive, tracing civil rights from the roots of urban Black life in the North through to the present day, rather than confining it to the mid-20th-century narrative that most are familiar with."

The Urban Civil Rights Museum will open in Harlem later this year as New York City's first museum entirely dedicated to the American civil rights movement. The museum centers Northern Black urban history, emphasizing that slavery and civil-rights struggles also shaped New York's housing, labor, policing, education and political power. The museum occupies roughly 20,000 square feet inside the National Urban League's headquarters at 117 West 125th Street within the 17-story Urban League Empowerment Center, a $242 million mixed-use development that includes nonprofit and minority-owned business space, a civic conference center and 170 affordable housing units. Exhibits will include a permanent interactive installation and rotating shows on the Harlem Renaissance, the Great Migration, Northern slavery and contemporary social justice movements. The opening is timed ahead of America's 250th anniversary amid charged debates over history, education, and equity.

Read at Time Out New York