National Juneteenth Museum announces new partnership with Meta

FORT WORTH, TEXAS (JUNE 1, 2023) — Today, the National Juneteenth Museum announced a partnership with Meta to help fund the new museum and community complex, which is slated to open in Fort Worth’s Historic Southside in 2025. In addition to supporting the National Juneteenth Museum itself, Meta’s grant will sponsor the creation of a 3D virtual video tour of the campus. The virtual tour, which will launch in early fall 2023, will also provide an early look at what’s to come at the museum.

“Since Meta broke ground on the Fort Worth Data Center in 2015, we have been proud to call this community home and to partner with local organizations that are making a positive difference,” said Holli Davies, community development manager, Meta. “We’re thrilled to support the new National Juneteenth Museum and for the world to learn about the historical and ongoing significance of Juneteenth, and of Ms. Opal Lee's tireless work to make Juneteenth a federal holiday to commemorate and celebrate the end of slavery in the United States.”

The National Juneteenth Museum is more than a museum. The site will include a 50,000-square-foot building that houses the museum, a business incubator, food hall for local chefs and restaurateurs, 250-seat theater and a black box flexible event space. As an economic driver for tourism and commerce for Fort Worth and Tarrant County, the campus will house operations that will help revitalize Fort Worth’s Historic Southside neighborhood’s infrastructure and create a space for new business, housing and a creative learning environment.

Meta’s donation supports the transformative community impact the National Juneteenth Museum brings to the Historic Southside neighborhood in Fort Worth. This community currently has the state’s lowest life expectancy and one of the highest infant mortality rates, according to a 2019 UT Southwestern study, due to years of disinvestment and neglect produced from suburban sprawl and changing population dynamics.

“Over the last 30 years the neighborhood has been downtrodden and destitute. The museum campus will be catalytic in the resurgence of its economic and cultural health,” says Jarred Howard, CEO and Visionary for the National Juneteenth Museum. “We’re grateful to partner with Meta on this meaningful endeavor that will have a positive impact on Fort Worth citizens for decades to come.”

As a nonprofit, the National Juneteenth Museum relies on corporate partners, like Meta, to build upon Ms. Opal Lee’s legacy to inspire the advancement of future generations through the celebration and education of Juneteenth nationally and beyond. The National Juneteenth Museum is slated to open to the public on June 19, 2025.