Around the Nation Wed February 22, 2012 African American Museum
Breaks Ground In D.C. Originally published on Wed May 23, 2012
10:01 am President Obama spoke Wednesday at the formal
groundbreaking for the Smithsonian's newest museum, the National
Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington,
D.C. The museum, Obama said, has been "a long time coming" and
will serve "not just as a record of tragedy, but as a
celebration of life." Obama said he hopes visitors will see the
artifacts of the African-American experience and understand that
"ordinary Americans could do extraordinary things" — whether
they are inspired by Louis Armstrong's trumpet, the plane flown
by Tuskegee Airmen or Harriet Tubman's shawl. Museum director
Lonnie Bunch remembers seeing a photograph of Tubman wrapped in
the shawl two days before she died. The shawl was a gift from
Queen Victoria, who had heard about the escaped slave who had
freed so many other African-Americans that she earned the
nickname "Moses." The museum's colle