Texas State University – Black History 101 Mobile Museum

Summary

On October 13, 2025, Dr. Khalid el-Hakim, founder and curator of the Black History 101 Mobile Museum, was invited by a Texas State University director of campus activities at the San Marcos campus to bring the traveling exhibition to campus for Black History Month programming scheduled for February 2026. He accepted the invitation and spent the following weeks coordinating logistics with university staff, including planning for scheduling and the museum’s on-campus presentation.

By October 28, 2025, after consulting with “supervisors and the leadership team,” the same campus official emailed Dr. el-Hakim to cancel the event. The message stated that the Black History 101 Mobile Museum “was not approved to be on campus” and cited “SB-17, the current climate of our State, and certain topics covered as part of the museum” as reasons for the cancellation. A later civil rights organization letter stated that this was the first time in more than 1,000 events that Dr. el-Hakim had an invitation for the museum rescinded.

In a December 16, 2025 letter, civil rights organizations including the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and the ACLU of Texas requested that Texas State University reinstate the invitation. The letter stated that Dr. el-Hakim had been invited on October 13, had accepted, and had coordinated logistics for approximately two weeks before the decision was reversed. It described the Black History 101 Mobile Museum as a traveling collection of more than 15,000 artifacts documenting Black history from slavery through civil rights and contemporary culture, previously exhibited at more than 1,000 institutions nationwide. The letter also stated that SB 17 does not prohibit guest speakers or short-term programming and argued it had been misapplied.

Texas State University issued a public response on December 22, 2025. The university stated that the Black History 101 Mobile Museum “was not cancelled” but was part of early-stage programming review for Black History Month 2026. It stated that no formal contract or finalized booking had been completed and that the decision not to proceed was made at the departmental level within student programming processes. The university also stated that a prior email incorrectly referenced Senate Bill 17 as a basis for the decision and clarified that SB 17 was not the basis for the programming determination.