The African American Museum in Philadelphia opened in 1976 as part of the city's Bicentennial celebration — the first museum in the United States funded and built by a municipality specifically to preserve and interpret the heritage of African Americans. The timing was deliberate: Philadelphia was reminding itself and the world that the story of American freedom was, from the beginning, a story shaped by Black Americans who were excluded from the freedoms being celebrated.
The permanent collections cover Philadelphia's role as a destination on the Underground Railroad, the city's vibrant Black cultural and intellectual life in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and the ongoing history of African American achievement in the arts, politics, and civic life. The rotating exhibitions have addressed everything from the music of the Great Migration to contemporary visual art. The museum sits on the edge of Old City, a short walk from Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell — a proximity that gives its subject matter additional weight.