Support Kukutana Museum: Safeguard Our Heritage

In 2025, are you ready? Let's own the museum that stands with the people. We are not just a tourism museum but a museum that caters to the needs of the people. The only black-owned museum in Memphis have never received any local, state or federal funds.

It is very important to fight for the preservation of our rich heritage. We can no longer let our history be hidden and we must boldly tell the stories altered or removed from history books.

We bring you greeting from the Kukutana African American History and Culture Museum which is located in the New Chicago CDC building at 1036 Firestone Avenue, Memphis, TN 38107 the former home of the Firestone Rubber Tire Union Hall. This historical building is the original building where the historically acclaim Memphis Sanitation Workers had their first initial meetings which 700 participants march from the Firestone Tire Rubber Union Hall to the Memphis City Hall. Mayor Henry Loeb met with the Sanitation Workers here in this historical building and which he walked out of the meeting.

This historical museum is under attack due to the significance of this museum for the next generations to come. We are progressively trying to retire this $69,000 loan to be free. We want no mortgage on the building, thus promoting FOR US, BY US!

The Kukutana Museum History and Culture Museum is a unique museum that caters to all people with the quest to educate people of all races, creeds, nationalities, religions, disabilities, gender identities and status quo. We want to be the bridge to cultural awareness.

The word Kukutana means, “To meet one another in Swahili.”

The time has come to open the cultural curtains to this rich heritage of African/African American synapse in the wake of black history being erased and removed from our schools, colleges, books and society.

With the payoff of this building, we are seeking a new home for this enormous collection of over 40 museum exhibitions, dioramas, colossal African statues, rare African American museum quality pieces and never-to-be-seen historical documents. Therefore, we want to retire this mortgage.

In preserving the legacy and heritage of the African American experience for generations to come, it is with immense gratitude that we present to you one of America’s magnificent African American museum collections of this century in the Mid-South.

Initially, the African American International Museum Foundation owned the African American artifacts, memorabilia, and historical documents that date back to the 17th century, but our reach and scope is greater now. Our intentional reach will be local and global with an artistic bond of copious museums, artists, cultural centers.

We are committed to improving the quality of life and economic well-being for Greater Memphis through the preservation, celebration and advancement of African American arts, culture, literature, and literacy. We inspire, educate, and engage students, artists, families, senior citizens, and tourists toward the creation of just and equitable communities through forward-thinking cultural experiences.

We are an intergenerational entity that provides a museum platform for artistic expression for all.

With enormous collaboration with other African American museums, local artists, international artists, cultural entities and museum associations, this museum has become one of the most important reservoirs of African artifacts in the Mid-South.

This historical collection and copious special exhibitions are comparable to the Smithsonian Museum. There are no other museums in the Mid-South that house artifacts of this caliber. Many of these artifacts are one-of-the-kind and have never been seen before in a museum setting, not to mention this museum will be bringing Memphis’s first African American “Black and Proud” Wax Museum to the city which will receive world-acclaim recognition.

With the political climate to erase the history of African descendants, we are more resolute now to erect this vast collection to make sure all citizens of this country be afforded the opportunity to learn, digest, interpret and discover Black History in its raw and authentic form. Removing any part of history is an injustice and abomination to the entire American society.

As African American descendants, we have come too far in this country to embrace systemic and bias racism now. Please donate to this worthwhile fundraising to preserve this extraordinary African American History and Culture Museum. Ase

All GoFundMe donations will be applied to retiring this mortgage which is the home of the Kukutana African American History and Cultural Museum.