Former Ku Klux Klan Hall in Fort Worth Converted Into Arts Center

A former Ku Klux Klan hall in Fort Worth, Texas, is being converted into an arts and community center named after a Black lynching victim, Axios reported. The building, once the KKK Klavern No. 101 auditorium, previously stood as a threat to Black Americans, Latinos, and Catholic and Jewish immigrants.

The new center will host performances, history programs, organizing events, and community healing activities. Similar conversions are occurring elsewhere. In Laurens, South Carolina, a former segregated theater that later housed a KKK museum has become the Echo Project, an antihate education center.

Officials in Fredericksburg, Virginia, moved a slave auction block from a downtown street corner to a museum and plan a memorial at the original site. In New Orleans, a former segregated school now operates as the Tate Etienne & Prevost Center, which includes civil rights exhibits, antiracism groups, and affordable senior housing.

In Drew, Mississippi, the Emmett Till Interpretive Center is transforming the barn where 14-year-old Emmett Till was tortured and killed in 1955 into a memorial and place for reflection.

Patrick Weems, executive director of the center, said the acquisition forced the community to confront a site many would rather avoid. "We have to sit with the worst of our humanity," Weems said. "We're not going to let this be erased.

These local efforts coincide with federal actions on historical content. A 2025 executive order by President Trump directed federal cultural institutions and Interior Department sites to remove or revise content interpreted as divisive or anti-American, often references to slavery.