Harlem civil rights museum highlights the North's forgotten history

For Marc Morial, president of the National Urban League, the North's civil rights story has lived too long in the shadows. The noted civil rights organization's new museum in Harlem is its push to bring that history into the light — permanently.Why it matters: The Urban Civil Rights Museum will be New York City's first museum dedicated to the American civil rights movement, and uniquely focused on the North — housing discrimination, policing, education, economic exclusion and the grassroots organizing that shaped modern Black political power.Driving the news: The museum will anchor the newly dedicated Urban League Empowerment Center, a $300M development that includes 170 units of affordable housing, minority-owned business space, and the Whitney M. Young Center for Leadership.The museum opens in 2026, timed to the nation's 250th anniversary.It will feature an interactive permanent installation, rotating exhibitions, and community spaces aimed at turning visitors into what Morial calls "agents of change." Marc Morial at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation's National Town Hall in Washington, D.C. (Leigh Vogel / Getty Images)What they're saying: Morial told Axios the museum is arriving at a time when efforts to erase or sanitize history are intensifying."The assault on truth in museums and libraries is absolutely racially motivated," he said. "It's erasure — but it won't work. People are more determined than ever to tell our story." Urban Civil Rights Museum in Harlem. Exhibition Design by Local Projects.Context: Morial's argument lands in a political climate where Americans are increasingly anxious about democratic instability and the erosion of civil rights. Against that backdrop, he sees the museum not just as a historical archive but as a counterweight to present-day efforts to restrict rights, suppress history and narrow who counts as fully American.Zoom out: Harlem has long been a center of civil rights infrastructure. The NAACP, the National Urban League, and CORE all built critical capacity out of New York. Leaders like A. Philip Randolph, Adam Clayton Powell Jr. and Ella Baker used Harlem as a staging ground for labor rights, voting access, economic justice and community organizing that predated and shaped the Southern movement.Zoom in: Today, the museum sits within a larger ecosystem inside the Empowerment Center — including cultural partners like the Studio Museum in Harlem, the United Negro College Fund, Virginia Union University and, soon, Jazzmobile and 100 Black Men of New York — designed to fuse housing, culture, history and leadership development under one roof.Morial also casts the new Conference Center as a place designed for the next phase of the movement."This is where ideas will be born, where movements will be nurtured, and where the future of equity will be shaped," he said.Between the lines: Morial pointed to book bans, attacks on DEI programs, and political efforts to dismantle civil rights protections as evidence of a coordinated rollback."How the hell do you ban Toni Morrison's books?" he said. "You think by banning them from a library you'll keep people from reading them? It's backfiring. More people want to understand Black history, not less."He frames the Empowerment Center as both a response to — and a rebuke of — the current moment."This is a declaration that we will not be erased," he said at the dedication. "Our communities deserve investment — not neglect." Urban Civil Rights Museum in Harlem. Exhibition Design by Local Projects.The bottom line: Morial calls the project "a model of inclusive development" that ties Harlem's legacy to its future."The civil rights story didn't just unfold in the South — the North was a battlefield, too," he said. "Harlem shaped the movement, and this museum makes sure no one can pretend otherwise."