Great Plains Black Museum, Archives and Interpretive Center

The Great Plains Black Museum and Interpretive Center will provide the greater Omaha metropolitan community with community education programs focused on the involvement of African Americans in the exploration, settlement, and development of Nebraska and the Great Plains. Twenty-four free programs will be planned and presented in cooperation with area history professors, drawing upon the archival records of the museum to help inspire youth and visitors of all backgrounds to overcome adversity to succeed in their goals and life. The programs will also be designed to provide an opportunity for participants to learn how to research their own ancestral history. The project seeks to address the lack of publicly accessible programs or collections covering the African American experience during the Homestead Act when emancipated African American families were encouraged to find freedom and free land in the Western United States as pioneer homesteaders.