The African American Museum of Iowa in Cedar Rapids preserves and shares the state’s African American heritage through exhibitions, education, and collections. Founded from efforts by members of Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church and incorporated in 1993, it grew from community heritage work into a statewide center serving more than 30,000 people each year. After opening a temporary museum in 2000, it moved into a permanent building in 2003. Its galleries and traveling exhibitions explore African American life in Iowa from West Africa to the present, while its archives, oral histories, and library document Black history across the state despite major flood damage in 2008 and later renovations.