Couple donates $500,00 to International African American Museum

The International African American Museum announced a $500,000 donation from Mary Major and Bill Horton, a couple living 10 miles from Gadsden’s Wharf, the site where more than 40 percent of enslaved Africans arrived in America. The wharf, which was originally built in 1767 in Charleston, S.C., is now home to the museum, which is projected to open in 2022.

During the Transatlantic slave trade, South Carolina received more enslaved than any other mainland colony, according to the Preservation Society of Charleston, As many as 260,000 enslaved Africans entered South Carolina from 1670 to 1808.  Most disembarked at Gadsden’s Wharf on the Cooper River in Charleston, between what are now Calhoun and Laurens Streets.

The International African American Museum will explore cultures and knowledge systems retained and adapted by Africans in the Americas. It also will teach the diverse journeys and achievements of these individuals and their descendants in South Carolina, the United States and throughout the African Diaspora. Exhibitions will feature historic figures, events and experiences from enslavement through the 20th-century civil rights movement to the present.

About the International African American Museum

The International African American Museum strives to foster empathy and understanding, empowering visitors with the knowledge of the past. The museum journey will challenge, illuminate, inspire and ultimately, will move people to action. The museum’s exhibitions will share untold stories using classic techniques as well as new approaches driven by innovation, technology and digital interactivity.