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New
Smithsonian
museum
chronicling
black
history
opens
By
JESSE
J.
HOLLAND
and
DARLENE
SUPERVILLE
ap.org
WASHINGTON
-
Centuries
of
struggles
and
strife,
decades
of
planning
and
pain,
and
years of
hoping
for a
place
that
African-American
history
can call
home
will
culminate
as
President
Barack
Obama
officially
opens
the
Smithsonian
National
Museum
of
African
American
History
and
Culture.
A
shining
bronze
beacon
on the
National
Mall,
only
steps
away
from a
monument
dedicated
to a
slaveholder
president,
the new
Smithsonian
will
chronicle
the
complex
relationship
between
the
United
States
and a
people
it once
enslaved,
and tell
the
story of
those
who
worked
to make
the
necessary
changes
to bring
the
country
to where
it is
today.
"It
doesn't
gauze up
some
bygone
era or
avoid
uncomfortable
truths,"
Obama
said in
his
weekly
radio
and
internet
talk.
"Rather,
it
embraces
the
patriotic
recognition
that
America
is a
constant
work in
progress,
that
each
successive
generation
can look
upon our
imperfections
and
decide
that it
is
within
our
collective
power to
align
this
nation
with the
high
ideals
of our
founding."
Thousands
are
expected
to
gather
on the
National
Mall on
Saturday
morning
to watch
Obama,
the
nation's
first
black
president,
cut the
ribbon
to open
the
museum.
People
are
flying
in from
around
the
country
to be
some of
the
first
people
inside,
if they
were
lucky
enough
to get
the
much-coveted
opening
day
tickets.
Ground
was
broken
for the
new
museum
in 2012
on a
five-acre
tract
near the
Washington
Monument
after a
decades-long
push for
an
African-American
museum
on the
National
Mall.
Congressman
John
Lewis of
Georgia,
a
longtime
civil
rights
icon,
worked
with
then-Sen.
Sam
Brownback
of
Kansas
to usher
legislation
through
Congress,
and
President
George
W. Bush
signed
into law
the bill
that
allowed
the
museum
to move
forward.
Construction
was
completed
earlier
this
year on
the
400,000-square-foot
museum
designed
by
British-Ghanaian
architect
David
Adjaye.
The
museum
strikes
a unique
shape on
the Mall
with its
three-tiered
bronze
exterior
panels
inspired
by an
African
wooden
column.
The
patterned
bronze
colored
tiles
are
inspired
by 19th
century
ironwork
created
by
slaves
in the
South,
and
allow
sunlight
into the
museum
through
patterned
openings.
Inside,
museum
officials
say they
have
nearly
3,000
items
occupying
85,000
square
feet of
exhibition
space
including
exhibits
like a
Tuskegee
Airmen
training
plane
and the
casket
of
Emmitt
Till, a
murdered
African-American
boy
whose
death
helped
rally
the
civil
rights
movement.
"It's
been 100
years in
the
making.
So many
people
have
dreamed
about
this
fought
for this
and
wanted
this to
happen,"
said
U.S.
Circuit
Judge
Robert
L.
Wilkins,
who
wrote
the book
"Long
Road to
Hard
Truth"
about
the
struggle
to get
the
museum
open.
"It's
going to
be a
testament
to their
work and
a
testament
to so
many of
our
ancestors
that
this
museum
will
open on
the
Mall."
Millions
of
donors,
both
known
and
unknown,
helped
fund the
museum.
But some
of the
biggest
donors'
names
adorn
the
walls
inside,
including
the
Oprah
Winfrey
Theater;
the
Michael
Jordan
Hall:
Game
Changers;
and the
newest
named
addition,
Robert
F. Smith
Explore
Your
Family
History
Center.
It is
named
after
the CEO
of
investment
firm
Vista
Equity
Partners
after a
$20
million
gift
announced
Monday.
---
Jesse J.
Holland
covers
race and
ethnicity
for The
Associated
Press
and is
the
author
of "The
Invisibles:
The
Untold
Story of
African
American
Slaves
in the
White
House."
Contact
him at
jholland@ap.org,
on
Twitter
at
http://www.twitter.com/jessejholland
or on
Facebook
at
http://www.facebook.com/jessejholland. |
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