3.  Twenty-first century ? What is in the Future?

Single ethnic museums exist in communities other than the African-American, Jewish-American and Native American.  Other programs placing emphasis on ethnic museums in the United States includes the 1999 proclamation of November 19, as Ethnic Museum Day by Illinois Governor George H. Ryan.  Museums that Ryan mentioned in his proclamation recognizing ?commitment in preserving ethnic history and promoting ethnic heritage, tradition and culture? were the Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum, the DuSable Museum of African-American History, both in Chicago, the Norwegian Norsk Museum, the Polish Museum of America, established in 1935, and other  museums including the Czechoslovak Heritage Museum, Swedish American Museum, Ukrainian National Museum, Scottish American Museum, Latvian Folk Art Museum, Mesopotamia Museum, Greek Museum and Cultural Center, Italian Culture Center, Balzekas Museum of Lithuanian Culture, Danube Swabian Museum, African American Hall of Fame Museum. 

As of 2003, there were at least 25 single ethnic museums in New York City, ?most springing up in the surge of ethnic self-consciousness of recent decades ?? (Berger, 2003, n.p.).  According to Berger, as in the past these museums are grass-roots in origin, driven by community activism.  Institutions he cited in New York include the Museum of Chinese in the Americas, Yeshiva University Museum, one of the founding members of the Council of American Jewish Museums, National Museum of Catholic Art and History, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, famous for its library collections as well as exhibits, Scandinavia House and the Ukrainian Museum.

Furthermore, as at the opening of the 20^th century, at this historic juncture vast numbers of immigrants are again seeking new homes in the United States.  They are still coming from European nations.  But larger numbers are coming from Asia ? India, China, Japan, Korea, Viet Nam and other nations ? Latin America and Africa.  These immigrants, too, are establishing neighborhoods and institutions through which they can continue to express their cultural heritage.  As elsewhere in the world, the face of the United States continues to change.

African American Museums.  Today there are over 260 museums across the United States that address issues related to African American culture and history. Many African American museums and libraries are in cities where last century's economic migrants are growing old and their children are scattering. Often individuals or small groups gather up materials because they have a local story to tell. The challenge taken up by many of these institutions is whether or not African American history as been interpreted at its best.  How effective have recent exhibitions managed to combine new and existing historical research with an ever-changing technology, while maintaining the integrity of the individual and the story?

African American museums in the United States have been catalysts that deepen appreciation and understanding of the African American experience in art, history, and culture.  They play an essential role in the creation of scholarship and serve as trusted stewards of collections.