Museums tell stories and this one tells one that should not be forgotten, lest it be repeated. In 1767, slaves’ hands built Gadsden’s Wharf, located in Charleston, Southern California, where almost half of all African slaves brought to North America, in the 18th and 19th centuries disembarked. Today, in this waterfront location, a long-awaited museum have been created to tell their stories and praise the contribution of their descendants. The IAAM was proposed in 2000 by former Charleston mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr. and designed by New York architectural firm Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, and it is finally under construction, with completion expected later this year. It will feature historical and cultural exhibits designed by Ralph Appelbaum Associates, house a family history centre, for ancestral research, and a social justice action lab.
