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Black History Month finds a future San Antonio museum that will tell the story of the African American community and others in need of donations as part of its capital campaign.
A $72 million project will turn the former Kress Department Store on Houston Street downtown into the new home of the San Antonio African American Museum and Community Archive by mid-2028.
San Antonio’s Black history began with the arrival of Africans here in the 1500s to assist the Spanish and served as scouts, translators and guides.
Today, the community makes up about 7% of San Antonio’s population and around 11% of the surrounding area’s population — or about the national average, said the museum’s CEO, Deborah Omowale-Jarmon.
She said the capital campaign is in its second phase to raise $13 million from public donations and $12 million from tax credits with about $10 million dollars left to go.
“Really, history doesn’t divide,” she said. “If it’s done well, it brings communities together because we don’t exist in a vacuum. “We co-exist, so we need to understand on how our stories have co-existed in the past.”
The sprawling 100,000 square-feet of space will include 30,000 square-feet of exhibition areas, a public research library, classrooms, a 400-seat auditorium, event space and a 12-room boutique hotel.
One exhibit will include the Kress lunch counter, desegregated during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.
Omowale-Jarmon said visitors will be able to lunch on meals at the historic counter while being served by some amazing African-descendant chefs in the city.
“There will be a rotating chef-in-residency program in conjunction with St. Philips’ hospitality and culinary school, so we’re just real excited to bring all of that together,” she said.
While large corporate donations are welcome, donors who give $15,000 will be recognized on a donor wall.
SAAACAM is also fundraising at events, but the easiest way for anyone to give is through the museum website.
