“I say to all involved with this Juneteenth collaboration: What we want is simple — we want the process to be fair and transparent.”
In 1979, I worked with Texas state Rep. Al Edward in getting his Juneteenth bill passed through the Texas Legislation.
On June 7, 1979, Texas Gov. Bill Clements signed Edward’s bill into law, making Juneteenth an official state holiday.
Forty-seven years later, I am still committed to protecting the integrity of Juneteenth and the pursuit of a Juneteenth museum.
A year ago, I was surprised by Galveston Historical Foundation’s clandestine press conference announcing the unwelcome news that it was developing a plan to create a museum.
The foundation is a nonprofit that owns multiple historic buildings and many of the buildings had the potential of becoming a Juneteenth museum.
The old Custom House was especially interesting because both the Confederate and Union armies occupied the building during the Civil War. After the war the building became a site to commemorate the celebration of Juneteenth.
However, the foundation sold the building without giving any consideration for it to become a Juneteenth museum.
Hope Tutorial Inc., a nonprofit, joined numerous leaders in the Galveston’s Black community in submitting a proposal to Galveston ISD’s board to purchase the former L.A. Morgan school for a Juneteenth museum.
Sam Collins, a longtime advocate of Juneteenth, was instrumental in securing $7 million for a Juneteenth museum.
Hope Tutorial asked the Galveston City Council to pass a resolution supporting the nonprofit group initiative to spearhead the search for a Juneteenth museum. The council deferred the resolution and it was never put back on the agenda.
The Galveston County Coalition for Justice believes the city of Galveston and historical foundation entered into a backroom deal that promised to give the foundation total control over the Juneteenth museum, including the use of $7 million allocated from the state of Texas.
We’re concerned the foundation will commoditize the Juneteenth museum to enrich themselves while the Black community whose ancestors endured enslavement on this soil will get absolutely nothing.
The foundation created a Community Advisory Committee that was supposed to be composed of Galveston’s Black community. However, any local African American that complained about the foundation’s covert press wasn’t permitted to serve on the committee.
In fact, the committee is mostly composed of Black people who don’t live on the island and Jason Edward lives in the state of Georgia.
Clearly, the committee is a pathetic hoax designed to bamboozle the Black community into believing our ideas for a Juneteenth museum will be seriously considered by the foundation.
The foundation has demonstrated it will have absolutely no intention to be fair and transparent with Galveston’s Black community.
And, the stakes are too high for us to accept anything less.
Therefore, to Mayor John Paul Listowski — if the city has any plans to use taxpayer money to help fund a Juneteenth museum, then Galveston’s Black community wants to know who is actually controlling the Juneteenth museum.
Tarris Woods is founder and president of the Galveston County Coalition for Justice and a former city council representative for District 1 in Galveston.
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