NEW YORK — Harlem is getting a museum for a part of history a lot of Americans never learned: the fight for civil rights in the North.
The Urban Civil Rights Museum opens to the public Saturday, Nov. 14, on the fourth floor of the National Urban League’s new headquarters at 117 West 125th Street, a building that also holds stores and affordable housing. Organizers call it the first museum in New York dedicated only to civil rights.
It was founded by Marc Morial, president and CEO of the National Urban League, and curator Jennifer Scott. The story starts with the transatlantic slave trade and follows Black Americans through the Great Migration and the 20th century, with a focus on the North.
That means slavery in northern states, free Black communities, the Underground Railroad and the abolition movement, told through artifacts, film and television clips, projected images, large maps and interactive booths. Visitors can see a replica of the box Henry “Box” Brown used to mail himself out of slavery in 1849.
Scott said many visitors will be surprised to learn that slavery existed in the North at all.
The Urban League has deep roots here at home. Its Bay Area affiliate, the Urban League of the Greater San Francisco Bay Area, is led by President and CEO Ken Maxey.
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