International African American Museum Breaks Ground Amid Fanfare
The International African American Museum (IAAM) held its groundbreaking ceremony Friday, October 25th at 10 a.m. The overflow crowd included friends and supporters from over the nearly twenty years the IAAM has been in development. Honored guests included Congressman Jim Clyburn (D-SC), Congressman Joe Cunningham (D-SC), Governor Henry McMaster (R-SC), Mayor John Tecklenburg (Charleston, SC), former Charleston mayor Joe Riley, and Mayor Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr (Freetown, Sierra Leone).
The IAAM will tell the story of the hundreds of thousands of enslaved Africans who were taken from West Africa, entered North America in Charleston, SC, endured hardship and cruelty, and then contributed so significantly to the greatness of America and the world. The Museum will honor the site where these enslaved Africans arrived and thousands died, tell their untold stories, and in doing so, will promote compassion and empathy among all people.
