The first black president of the United States cut the ribbon to inaugurate the striking 400,000-sq-ft bronze-clad edifice before thousands of spectators gathered in the USA capital to witness the historic opening, at a time of growing racial friction.
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Oprah Winfrey and Will Smith engaged in a poetry slam.
Baseball great, hall-of-famer Hank Aaron arrives for the dedication ceremony of the Smithsonian Museum of African American History and Culture on the National Mall in Washington, Saturday, Sept. 24, 2016. “The teacher or the cook, alongside the story of the statesman”, Obama said. “It is central to the American story”.
Thousands were expected to gather on the National Mall on Saturday morning to watch Obama, the country’s first black president, cut the ribbon to open the museum.
“Yes, a clear-eyed view of history can make us uncomfortable, and shake us out of familiar narratives”. It is precisely because of that discomfort that we learn and grow and harness our collective power to make this nation more ideal. The museum opened in Washington this Saturday, Sept. 24, 2016, aiming to tell the story of black people in the USA through compelling artifacts, yet visitors will find few personal mementos from one of the most famous and influential black Americans, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Ruth Bonner, 99, at center, is the daughter of Elijah Odom, who was born a slave. Calvin Butts, pastor of the Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York City, described the museum as a monument to “people who have truly given their all to the United States of America”. And more importantly, listen to each other.
President Barack Obama, the nation’s first black president, wiped away a tear as he formally opened the Smithsonian’s 19th museum with an impassioned 31-minute speech on the National Mall.
“We are America. And that’s what this museum explains”, the president added. Its opening takes place while protests continue in Charlotte this weekend for a fifth day after the officer-involved shooting of a black man there, and another earlier this month in Tulsa, Okla., the latter of which has resulted in a manslaughter charge against the officer.
Obama delivered his Saturday address amid these ever-heightening tensions, as national outrage grows over the spate of deaths of black men at the hands of police, prompting mass protests. “Today, a dream too long deferred is a dream no longer”, said museum director Lonnie Bunch about the museum’s grand opening.
An emotional Lewis, who first earned national attention as the chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and one of the organizers of the 1963 March on Washington, said he had been waiting for this day “in some ways, my whole life”.
“This museum will help us all further understand and appreciate the contributions of African Americans to the life of the nation we all love”. “Obama always has the right comments, and he says what needs to be said about the past, present and future”.
The dramatic building – set in a prime location near the White House and the Washington Monument – features three inverted-pyramid tiers sheathed in bronze-painted filigree panels that house more than 34,000 objects, almost half of them donated.
“I’m so happy to see that so many people of color are coming out together just to celebrate themselves and one another”, said 50-year-old Derek Jones, who ventured from NY to attend Saturday’s celebration that included music, poetry and dancing.
“Consider what this artifact tells us about history, about how it’s told, about what can be cast aside”, Obama said.
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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.
