James Cameron, who survived an attempted lynching by a white mob and went on to found America's Black Holocaust Museum, died here on Sunday. He was 92.

He had battled lymphoma for about five years, said Marissa Weaver, chairwoman of the museum's board.

In 1930, in Marion, Ind., Mr. Cameron, then 16, and two friends were arrested and accused of killing a white man during a robbery and raping the man's companion. A mob broke them out of the local jail and hanged Mr. Cameron's two friends, then placed a rope around his neck.

In 1988, he opened the museum in a small storefront room in downtown Milwaukee. Six years later, he took over an abandoned 12,000-square-foot gymnasium that the city sold him for $1. The museum explores the history of the struggles of blacks in America from slavery to modern times and is considered one of the first of its kind in the country.