The Daily DeseretChurch Pledges $3 Million to Fort Worth's National Juneteenth Museum
This page is our own summary. The original belongs to Church Newsroom; please read it there.
On Dr. Opal Lee's 100th birthday, the Church committed $3 million to the future National Juneteenth Museum in Fort Worth, including a planned FamilySearch-powered genealogy center, and donated food to local banks.
On October 7, 2026, supporters gathered in Fort Worth, Texas, to honor Dr. Opal Lee on her 100th birthday and to mark a milestone for the future National Juneteenth Museum. Lee, widely known as the "Grandmother of Juneteenth," spent decades advocating for national recognition of the holiday, which became a federal holiday in 2021. According to the Church Newsroom, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints used the occasion to announce a $3 million commitment toward construction of the museum.
What the museum will include
The planned 50,000-square-foot building grows out of a smaller museum Lee has run in Fort Worth for years. Plans call for exhibition galleries, educational spaces, a theater and community gathering areas. A genealogy center is also planned, with experiences powered by FamilySearch. The Newsroom says the center will put special emphasis on helping people trace and preserve African American family records, which have historically been hard to document.
A relationship built over years
The Church describes the gift as the result of relationships developed over several years, including a 2022 visit by Lee to Church headquarters in Utah. Church members and leaders in North Texas have taken part in Juneteenth celebrations and supported the Opal Lee Walk for Freedom. The Newsroom also points to earlier genealogy efforts, such as the Freedmen's Bureau Project and the 10 Million Names Project.
Elder Michael A. Dunn, president of the Church's United States Southwest Area, attended the morning gathering. Museum CEO Jarred Howard called the day "not the end" but "the beginning" of the project, which was marked with a ceremonial demolition that starts site clearing in Fort Worth's Historic Southside neighborhood.
Food for local pantries
The same day, the Church delivered 38,000 pounds of food and supplies to five local food banks, including Midwest Food Bank. The Newsroom says this shipment is part of a nationwide effort tied to the nation's 250th anniversary: 250 truckloads of food and essentials to 250 food banks.
Why it matters
For readers following how the Church engages with civic and cultural institutions, this is a concrete example: a financial gift, a family-history component, and hands-on service on one day, all framed around honoring a living civil rights figure. The Newsroom piece is a Church-published account, so the details here, including the dollar figure and the quantities, come from the Church's own release. Readers who want independent local coverage may want to check Fort Worth outlets as well.
This is our own summary. Photos and full details are on the original Newsroom page, linked above.
How we wrote this: we read the source page linked above and summarized it in our own words, quoting at most a short line with attribution. We have not added facts from outside that source. If anything here differs from the original, the original is correct.