Texas African American Museum board says Camacho-Ali won’t fulfill $1M donation

TYLER, Texas (KLTV) - A donation promise made to a Tyler museum will go unfulfilled, they have announced.

Dr. Khalilah Camacho Ali, the ex-wife of the late boxing legend Muhammad Ali, announced in February 2022 at a fundraising gala for the Texas African American Museum in Tyler that she planned to donate $1 million to the museum.

“And all I can say is before I make my speech, I am actually going to donate $1 million to the Texas African-American Museum,” she said during her comments at the event.

“That was February last year,” said Gloria Washington, TAAM executive director. “We have made some contact with Mrs. Ali but she still has not come through with her promise of one million dollars.”

Washington said there’s no ill will toward Ali but they want the public to know a year later, there is still no money.

“She did not leave us one million dollars and she has not given us one million dollars,” Washington said.

The purpose of the Texas African American Museum is to educate and empower the community. They had completed renovations on one half of the building and had one more side to go.

“We need to put on a new roof, we need to purchase new artifacts, there’s a lot of things we could do with that money,” Washington said. She is sad, still remains hopeful.

“This is like heaven away from home for me because I’m in here with all of our ancestors and when I’m here I feel like my ancestors are just telling me, ‘Keep going Gloria, keep going Gloria, it’s going to get better,” Washington said.

The museum is now relaunching their capital campaign to raise funds for renovations.

To make a donation or learn more you can visit the museum’s website.

Leadership and volunteers from the museum were surprised and thrilled, they said. The fundraising goal for the event had been set at $20,000.

“I jumped up, I just shouted and thanked God for this blessing to the Texas African-American Museum,” Gloria Washington, executive director for the Texas African American Museum, said at the time.

However, the Empowerment Community Development Corporation, announced on behalf of the museum on Wednesday that the promise she made 11 months ago has gone unfulfilled.

“After repeated contacts to Dr. Khalilah Camacho-Ali, the only feedback that she has given is that “she doesn’t have the funds,” the organization said in a statement.

They are concerned with the impact the situation is having on donations.

“The announcement by Dr. Khalilah Camacho-Ali went nationally (sic) and many believe that we have received the funds, and this has caused a drop in our donations,” and they said they are relaunching their capital campaign to try to raise the money themselves.

They say they “are focused more than ever on our goal and vision which is to preserve and educate the public on African American History in Texas, throughout America, and international.”

KLTV Sports Director was present at that banquet in 2022. You can watch that below:

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