Whooo-Hoooo: Wal-Mart Donates $5 Million To Help Build Black History Museum

The gift makes the world’s largest retailer one of the project’s “founding donors” who have given more than $1 million.


Wal-Mart donated $5 million Tuesday to help build the Smithsonian Institution’s planned National Museum of African American History and Culture on the National Mall. The gift makes the world’s largest retailer one of the project’s “founding donors” who have given more than $1 million.

Construction is scheduled to begin next year for a $500 million museum on a five-acre site near the Washington Monument next year. The project is on track to open in fall 2015, Museum Director Lonnie Bunch said Tuesday.
“This opens the door for even more corporations to give money and give support,” Bunch said of Wal-Mart’s gift. “We’re looking for entities that care about questions of diversity and education in America’s history.”
The museum already is building its collection. It recently acquired a biplane trainer flown by the Tuskegee Airmen in World War II. It recently went on display at the National Air and Space Museum’s Virginia annex until it the black history museum is built.
The Smithsonian is working to privately raise about half of the $500 million cost for what will be its 19th museum. Congress has pledged to provide the other half of the funding. In 2009, the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation gave $10 million to help start the effort.read more