He is scheduled to preside over the outdoor ribbon-cutting ceremony Saturday for the official opening of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, which was built on the National Mall in the shadow of the Washington Monument.
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The museum charts the African-American experience from the horrors of slavery to the struggles and triumphs of the civil rights movement.
“There will be tens of thousands of people there in person and around the world watching”, said Andrea Taylor, president and chief executive of the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute in Alabama. Exhibits include a slave cabin from SC, pieces of a slave ship, a reproduction of Oprah Winfrey’s television show set and artifacts from Obama’s first presidential campaign.
Museum officials say the new Smithsonian facility will chronicle the complex relationship between the USA 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.
Obama says that beyond slavery and the civil rights movement, the museum shows how much African Americans contributed to US culture, music, sports and film.
The most important thing about the new museum that opens Saturday in this city is not its bold architecture or the quality of its visual and aural exhibits or even the lessons it might seek to convey now and in coming years. “I’m inspired by history”, she said. “And recognize the common humanity that makes America what it is”.
The new National Museum of African American History and Culture chronicles dark chapters of USA history while celebrating the contributions African-Americans have made to society and culture. That exhibit contains such items as a slave cabin from SC, a bill of sale for a 16-year-old girl for $600, shackles used on slaves and a copy of the Emancipation Proclamation.
Johnetta Elzie is a student activist who has protested in the Black Lives Matter movement.
The museum holds more than 3,000 artifacts – with many contributed from ordinary Americans from across the country.
“Sargent Johnson, who lived from 1888 to 1967, was a premiere African American artist of his time who was respected by his peers of all races”.
One exhibit honors the legacy of Obama’s election.
“Because I’ve been dreaming about this for so long, it was nearly like seeing one of my children for the first time after they were born”, he said.
It will highlight the vibrancy of a people who were brought to these shores against their will under the most inhumane of conditions, as cargo, as property. “We were the outcome of these Freedom Riders”. It is located just to the east of the Washington Monument. The architects of the building drew on imagery from both African and American history for the outer layer, saying they were trying to reach towards the sky to express faith, hope and resiliency. The museum strikes a unique shape on the Mall with its three-tiered bronze exterior panels inspired by an African wooden column.
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At night, the corona glows from the light within the building.
