Group launches master-planning phase for Galveston Juneteenth center

GALVESTON (August 31, 2026)—An effort to establish the city as the national home for Juneteenth history is moving into a yearlong master-planning process, with organizers promising extensive community involvement after earlier disagreements raised questions about who should lead the effort and whose voices should shape it.

The group Juneteenth’s Home announced Monday it selected three firms — SmithGroup, Sources Cultural Resources Management and The Projects Group — to develop a master plan for what organizers envision as a national center for Juneteenth storytelling, education and cultural preservation in the city where the events commemorated by the holiday took place.

Juneteenth’s Home is a national initiative aimed at establishing Galveston as a home for Juneteenth history, storytelling and preservation, facilitated by the Galveston Historical Foundation’s African American Heritage Committee in collaboration with city and state leaders.

The selection moves the initiative from committee-led groundwork into a broader phase expected to include residents, descendants, historians, cultural leaders and other community members, group leaders said Monday.

Juneteenth’s Home on Monday launched a website, juneteenthshome.com, as a central hub for information about the initiative and the master-planning process.

Organizers said the site will be used to announce public engagement opportunities and provide updates through the planning process as residents, descendants and other stakeholders are invited to help shape the project.

“We are committed to ensuring that Juneteenth’s Home is a community-anchored initiative, and we have selected a master-planning firm whose experience and approach reflect that value,” spokesman Stephen Holmes said.

SmithGroup’s cultural portfolio includes work on the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture and Whitney Plantation. Sources CRM, led by historian Calinda Lee, will guide historical research, interpretation and descendant engagement, while The Projects Group will focus on governance, operations and long-term sustainability, the group said.

A five-member community committee selected the team after a national request for qualifications and proposals that began in November. Fifteen proposals were submitted before the field was narrowed to five firms and ultimately two finalists.

Committee members were Alice Gatson and Tommie Boudreaux of the Galveston Historical Foundation’s African American Heritage Committee, Galveston City Councilwoman Sharon Lewis, Galveston ISD Trustee David O’Neal and Holmes, a former Galveston County commissioner.

The emphasis on community involvement comes after months of public disagreement over the direction of efforts to establish a Juneteenth museum or cultural center in Galveston.

In January, The Daily News reported that a years-long effort to develop a Juneteenth museum had become the subject of a dispute over leadership, trust and control. Public historian Sam Collins III, who was among people working for Juneteenth to become a federal holiday, argued longtime advocates had been left out when the Galveston Historical Foundation announced the formation of Juneteenth’s Home in fall 2025.

Foundation leaders disputed that characterization, pointing to decades of work preserving Galveston’s Black history and saying the initiative was intended to be a community project rather than one controlled by the foundation.

At the time, Collins said the disagreement was not simply about which organization would lead the project, but whether descendants and community advocates would have meaningful authority in deciding how Galveston tells the Juneteenth story.

The newly announced planning process puts community engagement at the center of those decisions, group leaders said.

SmithGroup Vice President and Design Director Dayton Schroeter said the firm’s approach will begin with listening.

“We do not arrive with preconceived concepts; we work alongside communities to understand their history, their priorities and their aspirations,” Schroeter said.

The master-planning process is expected to take about a year and unfold in seven phases, the group said.

Work will include historical and interpretive planning, evaluation of potential sites, visitor-experience planning, governance models and development of a roadmap for implementing the project.

The process will culminate in a Future State & Recommendations Report and a final master plan.

The master-planning phase is being funded through a grant awarded by the Texas Historical Commission in June.

The funding came from $7 million the Texas Legislature approved in 2025 and put the commission in charge of for a Juneteenth-related project in Galveston. That appropriation became part of the earlier debate over the project, with Collins saying he helped advocate for the money at the Legislature.

Earlier work to identify and select a planning firm was supported by local philanthropic organizations, including the Moody Foundation, Eliza and Harris Kempner Fund, Ippolito Charitable Foundation, Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation and the Permanent Endowment Fund of Moody Methodist Church.

No specific physical concept has yet been selected. Earlier discussions about commemorating Juneteenth in Galveston have included possibilities ranging from a traditional museum to multiple historic sites or a broader cultural destination.

Community engagement sessions led by SmithGroup and Sources CRM are expected to begin in Galveston in mid-fall.

Corey Greineisen: corey.greineisen@galvnews.com; 409-683-5226

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