Actually, it’s the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
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Obama also emphasized that USA has work to do to end all forms of racism and prejudice, but told the crowd not to be discouraged that things aren’t yet flawless.
In it, she is heard pleading with officers not to kill her husband, saying he is not armed and has just taken medicine for a traumatic brain injury.
“It reminds us that routine discrimination and Jim Crow aren’t ancient history”, Obama said. “One of fear but also of hope”, he said.
WASHINGTON ― There were plenty of powerful moments during Saturday’s dedication of the National Museum of African American History and Culture. “It helps us better understand the lives, yes, of the president, but also the slave”. Ground was broken in February 2012.
Millions of donors, both known and unknown, helped fund the museum. Oprah Winfrey and Will Smith spoke at the ceremony.
The Museum was originally proposed 100 years ago and was conceived by Black Civil War veterans.
Obama while speaking at the event said they are not a burden on America, or an object of shame and pity for America. “But what this museum does show us is that even in the face of oppression, even in the face of unimaginable difficulty, America has moved forward”. “And that’s what this museum explains, the fact that our stories have shaped every corner of our culture”.
The museum, constructed from February 2014 under a bill signed by then United States president George Bush in 2003, is a three-tiered building whose exterior is made up of 3,600 bronze-colored panels.
Calling it an “act of patriotism” to understand African- American history and the struggles of all Americans, Obama, 55, said “a great nation doesn’t shy away from the truth”.
Guests of honor on stage included four generations of a black family called the Bonners, led by 99-year-old great-grandmother Ruth, the daughter of a slave who went on to graduate from medical school.
In his speech, Obama imagined himself coming back to the museum someday as a private citizen, “holding a little hand of somebody and telling them the stories enshrined here”.
Bush was there, along with his wife, former First Lady Laura Bush, to help dedicate the new museum and monument. “It’s absolutely breathtaking for me”, said Verna Eggleston, 61, of New York City, who was touring the museum later Saturday.
The bell the Obamas rang with Bonner and several members of her family came from the First Baptist Church in Williamsburg, Virginia. The bell will return to the church for the church’s 240th anniversary later this year.
Construction was completed earlier this year on the 400,000-square-foot museum designed by British-Ghanaian architect David Adjaye.
Another one of the Smithsonian Institution’s many museums in Washington is the National Museum of African Art.
Inside, museum officials say they have almost 3,000 items occupying 85,000 square feet of exhibition space.
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Jesse J. Holland is the AP’s race and ethnicity writer.
