The Mosaic Templars Cultural Center is a museum dedicated to the story of African American life and business. It focuses on collecting, preserving, interpreting and celebrating African American history, culture and community in Arkansas from 1870 to the present, and informs and educates the public about black achievements-especially in business, politics and the arts.[1]
The Mosaic Templars Cultural Center, with more than 8,000 square feet (740 m2) of interactive exhibit and education space, is slated to open to the public in 2008. A large third floor auditorium will provide opportunity to explore the story of Arkansas's African Americans through public forums, conferences, and performing arts.
The facility is currently under construction at the corner of West Ninth and Broadway Streets, the site of the original Mosaic Templars of America Headquarters Building, which was destroyed in a fire in March 2005. The Mosaic Templars Cultural Center is dedicated to building the cultural connection and to telling the stories of Arkansas's African American life and business.
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The Mosaic Templars was a black friendly society founded by John E. Bush and Chester W. Keatts, two former slaves, in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1883.[2]
The Mosaic Templars was an organization that originally provided illness, death, and burial insurance during an era when few basic services were available to black people. By 1900 Mosaic Templars’ industries grew to include an insurance company, a building and loan association, a publishing company, a business college, a nursing school, and a hospital.
By 1905 it had a number of lodges across the state with thousands of members. Its headquarters were housed in a handsome new building that opened in 1913; Booker T. Washington delivered the dedication speech. In the 1920s they claimed chapters in twenty-six states and six foreign countries, making it one of the largest black organizations in the world.
However, in the 1930s the MTA began to feel the effects of the Great Depression and eventually ceased operations. However, a single chapter remains, in Barbados.