This story appeared in Stet News Palm Beach County on December 15, 2025
Two significant donations are catapulting the African American Museum and Research Library in West Palm Beach forward as it enters Phase 2 in 2026.
The Community Foundation for Palm Beach and Martin Counties announced a $500,000 grant last month from Bank of America, and, this month, praised the Palm Beach County Commission for its second $1 million grant.
But that’s not all. Collections worth millions that could turn the museum into an international destination are in the works, the foundation’s president and CEO, Danita DeHaney, told Stet News.
The museum is being built on a historic site for the Black community, the former Roosevelt High School. The school, in Coleman Park at Tamarind Avenue and 15th Street, is owned by the Palm Beach County School District. The 37,000-square-foot research center and museum is expected to breathe new life into the neighborhood.
Phase 1 broke ground in January 2024 and is nearly complete. It included demolition, the renovation of the original gym and shop buildings and construction of a vocational education building. The museum’s projected opening date is late 2028.
The Community Foundation joined the effort in June 2024 after county commissioners approved an initial $1 million grant.
“It was a natural fit for us,” said DeHaney, who chairs the museum board. “It was like there was a piece missing before that the Community Foundation filled, and it just meshed so nicely with the goals of the School Board and the community to create the museum.”
The project has been decades in the making.
“If you think of what we’ve achieved, it is through grace in many ways,” DeHaney said. “We appointed two boards, a governing board, which is a legal requirement, and we also appointed an advisory council, which serves as a vehicle to keep us completely connected to the community.” (See the list of members at the bottom.)
The advisory board is working with community members to fulfill this 40-year-old vision. “Their voice, their handprints are all over the design. And they were very involved in the architect selection process. I’m grateful because we got the right architect. The design is going to be amazing in part because it reflects what the community wants to see.”
In June, the Community Foundation selected Bora Architecture & Interiors of Portland, Ore., as lead architect from 40 candidates.
Phase 2, with a budget of $60 million, will include restoration of the research library and construction of a two-story, 20,000-square-foot museum, which will have exhibit space and areas to host community lectures, educational programs, oral histories and youth initiatives.
“There’s symbolism embedded in the design that reflects that community,” DeHaney said.
Phase 3 will complete the interior museum and library finishes, construct gardens and green space adjacent to the museum, and install plenty of storage. It is in the planning/fundraising stage and is expected to cost another $30 million.
What will be inside
The space will feature exhibitions reflecting local African American history and the African diaspora in Palm Beach County. It will include the newspaper clippings, pictures and artifacts compiled and maintained by Ineria Hudnell, who died in 2018.
Hudnell taught at local schools including Roosevelt High for three decades and was best known as the community’s historian and the “living heart” of Black history.
Plus, DeHaney said, “We have two collections coming that are worth millions and that will make this museum an international tourist destination.” Until lawyers finish the paperwork, she says she can’t say more.
Who’s paying for this?
Phases 1 and 2 are budgeted at $80 million: $20 million for Phase 1 and $60 million for Phase 2. The Palm Beach County School District paid for Phase 1 and will contribute $30 million to Phase 2. The Community Foundation has committed to raising the $30 million to complete Phase 2.
The grants from Bank of America and the county, with money from the Quantum Foundation and private donors, are encouraging, DeHaney said, in part because the museum is a unique project for the Community Foundation.
The foundation typically helps philanthropists connect with nonprofits that naturally align with their interests and values. It doesn’t usually develop museums.
But this project “accelerated our ability to bring more people into the tent because this is a completely different idea,” DeHaney said. It’s also opening doors to other projects. Watch for an announcement soon, she said.
With designs, fundraising will begin in earnest, DeHaney said. “I’m assured by philanthropists in our community that the money’s going to roll into this project. We haven’t really started the fundraising campaign because we really don’t have a design, but in about two weeks, it’ll be approved,” she said.
Fundraising is where DeHaney, who started her career in sales at Xerox, is focused. Her job “requires lots of conversations, lots of intentional strategies aimed at our wealthy residents to inspire them to support those to the west of us by 5 miles, and I love that. That’s my gift.”
A record year
The numbers prove it: The Community Foundation raised a record $55.2 million in philanthropic support in 2025.
“We raised more money than ever in the foundation’s 53-year history last year,” DeHaney said. “I have to be careful when I say that because we’re not raising money for the Community Foundation. We are raising money that goes back into the community.”
Some of that money was used to make “a sizable grant to help repair the homes of seniors,” DeHaney said, evidence of the museum’s overall message, which is one of hope.
DeHaney has a respect and passion for the Black Seminole story, which represents resilience, adaptation and compromise. Through the museum, she wants to make sure that story is shared with young people.
“The younger generation, they need something to look forward to, and this museum will serve as a beacon for what can happen. We will use this museum to inform and educate, and they’ll see themselves in parts of history. The feature of the museum that I’m really excited about is the immersive art experience where technology is used to tell stories,” DeHaney said.
“And this is a gift to them. So, my emotional excitement is wrapped up in the idea of hope for Black people, for our Black and brown young people who have been discarded in many ways in our society.
“And the other thing that I’m proud of is that (the museum) is going to be such a ‘wow!’ It is not dumbed down. It is going to be the anchoring institution for this revitalization effort of this community. How honored am I to be able to breathe the energy and to attract the resources we need to finish this? I’m humbled by it.
“This museum is going to be a bright light. I really believe that.”
To learn more about the museum, visit https://yourcommunityfoundation.org/african-american-museum-and-research-library/.
African American Museum and Research Library board
- Verdenia Baker, retired Palm Beach County administrator
- Edrick Barnes, West Palm Beach attorney
- Julie Fisher Cummings, adjunct visiting professor, University of Miami
- Sheree Davis Cunningham, retired 15th Judicial Circuit judge
- Danita DeHaney, president and CEO of the Community Foundation for Palm Beach and Martin Counties
- Edwin Ferguson, Palm Beach County School Board member
- Rainford Knight, chief digital transformation officer, GA Telesis
- David Lawrence, president, Cultural Council for Palm Beach County
- Mary Katherine Morales, vice president for philanthropic services, Community Foundation
- County Commissioner Bobby Powell
- Francine Walker, marketing and events consultant
- Bill Watson, executive project manager, Community Foundation
- County Administrator Joe Abruzzo or his appointee
Advisory Council
- Elsa Blanco-Bridgen, grants manager, Quantum Foundation
- Charlene Farrington, executive director, Spady Cultural Heritage Museum
- Kirra Kelly, community volunteer
- Brian Knowles, CEO, Power Builders Curriculum and Pedagogies
- Annie Ruth Nelson, African American Research Library and Cultural Center of Palm Beach County
- Cora Perry, Industrial Roosevelt High School National Alumni Association & Friends
- Debbye Raing, Palm Beach County African Diaspora Historical & Cultural Society
- Jermaine Scott, assistant professor of history, Florida Atlantic University
- Sterling Shipp, author and owner, One Sterling LLC
- Jacquelyn Taylor, Palm Beach County African Diaspora Historical & Cultural Society
- Davicka Thompson, president, Thompson Creative Collective
- Alisha Winn, anthropologist, CEO, Consider the Culture
