TYLER, Texas — The East Texas community is still overjoyed by Dr. Khalilah Camacho-Ali's $1 million donation to the Texas African American Museum.
But the million-dollar question remains, what does the museum plan to do with that money?
Gloria Washington, the museum's executive director, says she’s not making any decisions about using the money. However, she and other local leaders do have aspirations to turn the small facility into a state-of-the-art museum.
“My expectation is to see this museum to become state-of-the-art like you see in Dallas, San Antonio or Austin,” said Washington. “We want this to be a very significant museum to Tyler, Texas -- to Smith County.”
Washington says Dr. Ali’s donation will hopefully inspire other prominent figures to give to small-town museums working hard to preserve Black history.
“No one expected Dr. Ali to give us that amount,” said Washington. “There's going to be so many other people that would like to pick up and do the same thing that she has done.”
Board members will meet with Dr. Ali in March to discuss more of the donation logistics and what it will mean to the museum.