Southern Living magazine names International African American Museum the South’s Best

First, the International African American Museum (IAAM) was named one of the 10 Best Museums to visit in America.

Now, Southern Living magazine has named IAAM the South’s Best Museum, a testament to the nearly one-year museum’s renewed focus on serving its closest constituents in Charleston and throughout the Lowcountry.

The magazine touted, in particular, The American Journeys exhibit at the museum, which “starts with a white cutout of Africa in front of muted photos of Black American heroes. The word “we” stretches the width of the continent in capital letters, and the statement continues on the floor below: “begin here.”

And that is what IAAM has accepted as its mission: telling different stories from the place so many American lives began in pain but now thrive in excellence.

The IAAM opened in June 2023 on Gadsden’s Wharf, the former port on Charleston’s riverfront where more than 40 percent of enslaved Africans brought to America first landed. The museum shares the stories of those early residents and their descendants. But in addition to teaching history, it also teaches visitors to find and tell their own stories from history.