Sponsors (8)
Introduced February 25, 2025 by Daniel Goldman · Last progress February 25, 2025
The bill would create a federally supported museum and strengthen preservation, education, and tourism around the African Burial Ground—providing significant public benefits—while committing taxpayers to new and potentially open‑ended spending and creating governance, ethical, and local‑control tradeoffs that will need careful management.
Students, residents, and visitors gain a permanent, federally supported museum and educational center that preserves and interprets the African Burial Ground and increases public understanding of U.S. slavery and African American history.
The federal appropriation (including $15 million in FY2025 and authority for continued startup support) and federal share for land/construction reduce local funding burdens and make establishment and early operations feasible.
Incorporation into the National Monument and formal federal management will protect and preserve site lands, collections, and artifacts for long‑term stewardship and scientific research.
Taxpayers face new and ongoing federal costs — including a FY2025 appropriation and potentially open‑ended future funding — that increase federal spending or require tradeoffs with other priorities.
Excavation, DNA analysis, display decisions, and potential sale or disposition of artifacts raise ethical, cultural, and privacy concerns for descendant communities and could limit equitable access to remains and original materials.
Expanding federal management and acquiring adjacent property could limit local control over land use and development decisions for affected parcels.
Based on analysis of 9 sections of legislative text.
Creates and funds an African Burial Ground International Memorial Museum and Educational Center, authorizes property acquisition and federal management, and establishes governance and funding.
Creates an African Burial Ground International Memorial Museum and Educational Center at the African Burial Ground National Historic Landmark in Lower Manhattan, to serve as a permanent memorial, museum, research center, and educational facility interpreting the history of enslaved Africans and African Americans. The Interior Department (through the National Park Service) must acquire property, plan, design, construct, and operate the museum in consultation with an advisory council and the African Burial Ground Memorial Foundation. The bill authorizes $15 million for FY2025 and additional funds as needed for later years and for site acquisition, and sets up governance (an advisory council, a Director, and two staff positions) and authorities for collections, programming, and partnerships.