National Museum of African American History and Culture opens

The National Museum of African American History and Culture will be a place where all Americans can learn about the richness and diversity of the African American experience, what it means to their lives and how it helped us shape this nation.  A place that transcends the boundaries of race and culture that divide us, and becomes a lens into a story that unites us all.

On Saturday, the doors of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture will open to the public, achieving a goal of black Americans that has been a century in the making.

The 19th Smithsonian Institution was designed to tell the story of the United States America—from its founding to today—from an African American perspective. The museum will also challenge visitors to grapple with some of the uglier points of American history, from the slave trade to Jim Crow.

“We felt it was crucial to craft a museum that would help America remember and confront, confront its tortured racial past,” said Lonnie Bunch, the director of the museum, at a press conference marking the museum’s opening. “But we also thought while America should ponder the pain of slavery and segregation, it also had to find the joy, the hope, the resiliency, the spirituality that was endemic in this community.” 

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