Buffalo Black Achievers Museum

Buffalo’s rise, decline and current resurgence has been influenced for generations by the contributions of African Americans.  From the city’s trading-post origins through its time as a stop on the Underground Railroad, into the Civil War and through the days of Jim Crow to the Civil Rights movement, black Americans have played crucial but often under-recognized parts in the city’s history. Buffalo’s Black Achievers, Inc. plans to change that, by establishing a museum dedicated to highlighting the contributions of African Americans to Buffalo’s history and to its present resurgence.  The Buffalo Black Achievers Museum will permanently house standing exhibitions and archival resources that will enlighten, educate, motivate and inspire not only the black community, but the wider population by focusing attention on the educators, businesspeople, social advocates, clergy and public figures who built Buffalo’s past and who plan the city’s future. 

The Museum will maximize its location in the heart of the university-medical corridor development and take its place as a tourist destination.  The stories of black achievers will draw visitors who want to see examples of accomplishment and endurance, presented in a neighborhood of the city that demonstrates those concepts.  Our location in a re-developing urban area underscores the black community’s participation in the history of Buffalo, and offers a destination for tourists to see the urban renaissance in progress.  Visitors will recognize our Museum as an integral partner of the resurgence of our city and as an economic and cultural force within an active urban residential area.