The Mosaic Templars Cultural Center (MTCC) was established under Act 1176 of 2001 as the Mosaic Templars of America Center for African American Culture and Business Enterprise. As part of the Division of Arkansas Heritage, MTCC was created to honor and preserve the legacy of the Mosaic Templars of America, an African American fraternal organization founded in Little Rock in 1883, and to tell the broader story of Arkansas’s African American history, culture, and entrepreneurship.

The museum is dedicated to telling the story of the African American experience in Arkansas. The Center’s name comes from the Mosaic Templars of America, whose national headquarters once stood at West Ninth Street and Broadway in Little Rock. Like many businesses during the Great Depression, the organization was forced to close its doors. MTCC originally planned to restore the 1913 Mosaic Templars of America National Grand Temple, but the historic building was destroyed by fire in March 2005.

In September 2008, the new 35,000-square-foot facility opened on the original site. It was designed as a state-of-the-art museum complex with exhibits, classrooms, staff offices, and a 400-seat auditorium. Its façade is a faithful reconstruction of the 1913 building, including a replica of the Annex building façade, which had been lost to fire in 1984.

Since opening, MTCC has served as a hub for education, cultural preservation, and community engagement. Exhibitions and programs celebrate the resilience, creativity, and contributions of African Americans in Arkansas. In April 2020, after a multi-year process, MTCC became the third Black history institution in the South to earn accreditation from the American Alliance of Museums, an achievement that positioned it among the nation’s leading cultural institutions.

In 2023, MTCC completed a major renovation to enhance both its physical space and visitor experience. The updates included redesigned permanent galleries with immersive, interactive exhibits, improved lighting and display technology to better showcase artifacts, and expanded public gathering areas for events and educational programs. Accessibility upgrades ensure that all visitors can fully engage with the museum’s offerings. The revitalized space reaffirms MTCC’s role as a forward-looking cultural leader while preserving and sharing authentic African American stories from Arkansas’s past.