Harriet Tubman Museum set to open in 2020 in New Jersey

A museum honoring Harriet Tubman’s life and history is scheduled to open next year in New Jersey, in time fore her 200th birthday.

According to ABC News, next June The Harriet Tubman Museum will be launched in Cape May, a town where the abolitionist earned money as a hotel worker and cook, right next to Macedonia Baptist Church.

READ MORE: Rare photo of a young Harriet Tubman goes on display at NMAAHC

Cape May city councilman, Zack Mullock is overseeing construction of the upcoming landmark and told ABC that nearly $160,000 of the $500,000 needed for the exhibit to open has already been raised through donations from local institutions and members of the community.

The labor of love appears to be a family affair, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports, given that that it was actually Mullock’s father Bob Mullock who came up with the concept for the tribute to Tubman.

A look inside the future home of the Harriet Tubman Museum in Cape Mayhttps://t.co/J0k2LfRykQ pic.twitter.com/gAy1fMQclv

— Love Cape May (@LoveCapeMay) November 19, 2019

The Mullock family has also been in contact with the makers of the new movie Harriet, and plan to screen the feature film during the museum’s grand opening on June 19, 2020. The grand opening date was specifically chosen to coincide with both Juneteenth and what will be the 200th anniversary of her birth.

READ MORE: Confederate Site in Baltimore Rededicated to Harriet Tubman

On display at the museum will be Black art, including a collection of more modern pieces from Rev. Robert Davies, a Macedonia Baptist Church pastor who passed away in 2015. There will also be items from the Underground Railroad featured as well.

“There’s so much Black history … it’s unbelievable,” said Dempsey, an Air Force vet who’s lived in Cape May for over sixty years. “There’s just the history of the background of Harriet Tubman. What she did was amazing … what she did as a woman … it’s just a wonderful thing,”

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