Opening 2026
Introducing New York's First Civil Rights Museum!
The Urban Civil Rights Museum in Harlem presents the history of the Northern civil rights movement. It is a cultural institution that educates, inspires, and activates visitors through powerful storytelling, cultural engagement, and collective action. Rooted in history and in Harlem, it stands as a local anchor and a global destination for learning, reflection, and empowerment.
Mission
The Urban Civil Rights Museum in Harlem’s mission is to interpret, document, and share the stories of the long and ongoing struggle for justice and civil rights in Northern urban environments across America.
Become a Founding Supporter
Opening in 2026, the Urban Civil Rights Museum in Harlem will be a dynamic resource of civil rights history in the North. By becoming a Founding Supporter today, you are helping to establish this landmark institution and play a key role in our work to uncover hidden stories and inspire people to realize their potential as agents of change.
Urban Civil Rights Museum in Harlem. Design: Local Projects
Urban Civil Rights Museum in Harlem. Design: Local Projects
Urban Civil Rights Museum in Harlem. Design: Local Projects
Reverend Milton Galamison (L), one of the organizers of New York City's school boycott, joins pickets in front of a Brooklyn school. The citywide boycott was a massive protest against segregation in the nation's largest school system. Half of the million students in the city were expected to stay out of school, New York, New York, February 3, 1964. Bettmann/Getty
Savoy Ballroom, Harlem Landmark, New York, New York, 1952. Bettmann/ Getty
Cootie Williams plays his trumpet in a crowded Harlem ballroom with Duke Ellington's band, where Williams would find his trademark sound- the growl, New York, New York, c. 1930. Bettmann/ Getty
The Temple No. 7 Restaurant, which is attached to the Nation of Islam temple of the same name, on Lenox Avenue and 116th Street in Harlem, New York, New York, 1961. Radical civil rights leader, Malcolm X was minister at the temple from 1954 to 1964. Archive Photos, Stringer/ Getty
Group of workers from Florida stop alongside the road in Sawboro, North Carolina, on their way to Cranberry, New Jersey, to pick potatoes. July 1940. Historical/ Getty