SC city gives $1M to new African American history museum

Courtesy by International African American website

Courtesy by International African American website

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — North Charleston is giving $1 million to a new African American history museum in South Carolina and is asking the museum to include the city’s story.

The North Charleston City Council voted unanimously Thursday to give the money from the city’s taxes on hotels to the International African American Museum being built in Charleston.

Mayor Keith Summey says he hopes the money helps tell the story of North Charleston’s predecessor Liberty Hill, where a black couple bought farmland during the Civil War that was later sold to other African Americans.

North Charleston’s history also includes racial struggles . The city paid a $6.5 million settlement to the family of a black man, Walter Scott, who was shot in the back and killed by a white police officer in 2015.