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SALT LAKE CITY — Almost half of all enslaved Africans shipped to America through the Transatlantic Slave Trade arrived in Charleston, South Carolina.
Once a place of unimaginable horrors against humanity, Charleston will now be home to a new museum that aims to help the descendants of those slaves learn about their ancestors.
On Wednesday, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints donated $2 million to the new International African American Museum to support the creation of the museum’s Center for Family History.
Elder David A. Bednar, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, presented the donation to the museum’s president and CEO during RootsTech — the world’s largest family history event — which kicked off its ninth year in Salt Lake City Wednesday.
“We want to support the museum and the Center for Family History because we both value the strength that comes from learning about our families,” Elder Bednar said in a news release. “The museum will not only educate its patrons on the important contributions of Africans who came through … Charleston, it also will help all who visit to discover and connect with ancestors whose stories previously may not have been known.”
The museum is scheduled to open its doors in 2020. Once available to the public, it aims to highlight the history, sacrifices and contributions of Americans of African descent. The museum will be built on the former Gadsden’s Wharf, where the majority of slaves who came to Charleston disembarked.
Museum officials hope it “will contribute to a more complete and honest articulation of American history that will resonate with both national and international visitors.” They also hope the Center for Family History will become one of the major centers for African American genealogy — for those with African heritage in the U.S. and beyond.
“One of the crown jewels of the experience at the museum will be the Center for Family History. Because of this generous donation from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the center will catapult into a level of excellence that simply would not be achievable,” Joseph P. Riley, lifetime board member of the International African American Museum and former mayor of Charleston, said in a news release.
The son of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Martin Luther King III, also spoke at RootsTech Wednesday and noted that the relationship between the church and the museum is a reflection of the “beloved community” for which his father advocated.
The church is also hoping to expand its family history focus even beyond the pond with RootsTech’s first-ever international genealogical conference in London during late October.
“We see a lot of people tuning in to RootsTech in our free livestream, even throughout Europe,” said Tyler Stahle, marketing manager for RootsTech.
The conference will be held Oct. 24-26 at the ExCel London Convention Center — what Stahle said was a good “crossroads” place for a European audience as well as an East Coast audience. The rich history in the British Isles doesn’t hurt either, he said.
“We’ve just seen an increase in interest in family history and people wanting to know where they’re from and connect back to their roots and find that sense of belonging that comes with it,” Stahle said.
Event organizers hope the event will draw at least 6,000 attendees. Salt Lake’s RootsTech has grown from 3,000 attendees in its first year to now over 20,000.
Registration for the London event opens Wednesday evening at https://www.rootstech.org/london.
