International African American Museum

About 40 percent of all Africans trafficked to the United States first set foot on land at Gadsden's Wharf, along Charleston's Cooper River waterfront. The International African American Museum opened on that ground in June 2023, after two decades of planning, and has since drawn more than half a million visitors. Time named it one of the world's greatest places. In 2026, facing what the museum described as a shift in the political and funding environment, it furloughed its entire staff — while remaining open.