Joe Riley taking step back from active role with the International African American Museum

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCBD) – Former Charleston Mayor Joseph P. Riley, Jr. is taking a step back from his active role with the International African American Museum.

It comes as the museum reaches a major milestone – the ability for staff members to move into the museum, install exhibits, and prepare for its first visitors.

Since first proposing the museum during his State of the City address twenty-two years ago, Charleston’s longtime mayor and museum’s founder said he’s had no higher priority than to see the museum become reality.

“Our journey has been long, because it took time to secure the optimal site: a site that is called ‘sacred’ because it is precisely where so many enslaved Africans arrived in our country, and many died here. It took time to raise the resources, assemble the team, and plan every detail that would enhance the experience of being here. And it took time because we have been committed to excellence,” said Riley in a letter Wednesday.

Grateful of the team who helped launch the effort from the beginning stages, to its volunteers and financiers, and those involved through its current state, Riley said those involved were all “stewards of this Museum’s future.”

“The International African American Museum has been the most important work of my life, because I believe so strongly that it is long past time that we tell our true history, our country’s history. When we do, we can begin to heal and move forward together,” he said.

But as the museum inches closer to opening, Mayor Riley said he’s decided it was time to bring his active role to an end. Instead, he will serve only as a lifetime member of the board.

He plans to devote his time to writing and teaching.

“I do so with great optimism. In the evening light, the Museum’s distinctive pale golden bricks seem to shimmer. Sun rays leap through the windows. The building appears to be a gatherer of light, reminding us of Dr. King’s famous words: “Darkness cannot drive out darkness. Only light can do that.”