Founders Fund Gets $500,000 Boost from Fluor Foundation

CHARLESTON, S.C. (July 27, 2018) – As the International African American Museum’s Founders Fund approaches the finish line, it has received a $500,000 pledge from the Fluor Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the Fluor Corporation.

Fluor has had a presence in Greenville, South Carolina for decades. The $19 billion company, based in Irving, Texas, has nearly 60,000 employees worldwide.

“Fluor has been a major corporation in South Carolina for more than 80 years and now operates in six continents,” said Michael Boulware Moore, IAAM president and CEO. “While based in Charleston, the International African American Museum will convey critical chapters of history that are relevant to people across the nation and the world, in all of the communities that Fluor serves.”

This leadership investment will be recognized in the African Roots Gallery, which situates Africa and Africans as central to the overarching narrative of the IAAM. Focusing on major regions in the Upper Guinea Coast and West Central Africa, and the diverse ethnicities within these regions that represent the origins of African ancestors in North America, the exhibit will give visitors a picture of the cultures, knowledge and technologies that Africans from these regions brought to the Americas through the forced migration of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade.

All of the museum’s galleries will be designed as immersive, interactive learning experiences by the team at Ralph Appelbaum Associates. These kinds of exhibits provide visitors with hands-on educational opportunities, one of the museum’s central goals.

“Fluor values diversity and has always prioritized education,” said Torrence Robinson, president of the Fluor Foundation and Fluor’s senior director of Global Community Affairs. “The IAAM’s function as a center of learning and serving students, not only in South Carolina but across the nation through digital engagement, aligned perfectly with our objectives. We look forward to watching this institution come to fruition and educate students for years to come.”

Joseph P. Riley, Jr., IAAM board member and former Charleston mayor, added that, “Fluor’s deep roots in South Carolina and its dual goals of supporting education and diversity are a natural fit with our institution. It is so meaningful to find partners whose history and philanthropic interests dovetail so well with the International African American Museum.”

About the IAAM:

Nearly half of all enslaved Africans forced to America through the Transatlantic Slave Trade arrived in Charleston, and the vast majority disembarked at Gadsden’s Wharf, the future home of the International African American Museum (IAAM) and one of the most significant and sacred sites of the African American experience in the Western hemisphere. The IAAM, a museum, memorial and site of conscience, will present unvarnished history and culture, commemorate and celebrate the foundational role that Africans and their descendants played in the making of America, and highlight their diasporic connections around the world. It will include immersive, interactive exhibits engaging to all ages and feature the Center for Family History, a leading genealogy archive that will help visitors identify their individual threads in the complex tapestry of history.

About Fluor:

Founded in 1912,Fluor Corporation(NYSE: FLR) is a global engineering, procurement, fabrication, construction and maintenance company that transforms the world by building prosperity and empowering progress. Fluor serves its clients by designing, building and maintaining safe, well executed, capital-efficient projects around the world. With headquarters in Irving, Texas, Fluor ranks 153 on the Fortune 500list with revenue of $19.5 billion in 2017 and has more than 56,000 employees worldwide. For more information, please visit www.fluor.comor follow Fluor on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedInandYouTube.

SaveSave