Black American journey finally enshrined in national museum
WASHINGTON >> When the Smithsonian Museum of African-American History and Culture opens this week alongside the Washington Monument and the National Museum of American History, it will firmly — and finally — anchor the black experience in the nation’s narrative.
“In 1915 . they say, ‘There should be a monument. There should be a memorial that honors our contribution,’” said Michelle Wilkinson, one of the museum’s curators. “Not just a pile of stone, or a shaft. It needs to be a museum.”
Fifty years after the end of the Civil War, black citizens in Washington, D. C ., formed the National Memorial Association with the purposeof“erecting a beautiful building. suitable to depict the Negro’s contribution to America.” It would be, they said, “a shrine for posterity.”
It has taken a century for their dream to be realized in Washington, a place visited by more than 20 million people from around the world who want to learn about the United States. During that time, other monuments and museums celebrating the stories of other Americans were proposed and built in the nation’s capital.
On Saturday, the long wait is over: America’s first black president and first lady will preside over the museum’s opening.
Thousands are expected to attend the museum’s inaugural weekend, and millions more will virtually experience the milestone via social media.
The imposing space on the National Mall likely will set visitor records. And in an era informed simultaneously by the historic election of President Barack Obama and a succession of killings of unarmed black men at the hands of police, it is a building that will affirm for many that black lives matter.
Its facade is unlike anything else in Washington. The building’s outward design — known as the Corona — features walls reaching skyward, evoking the resiliency, faith and hope that has sustained black Americans since they were brought to the country in bondage. Its three-tiered shape is inspired by a symbol from the Yoruba people of West Africa featuring a crown. The 3,600 bronzecolored panels surrounding the building are a tribute to the 19th-century ironwork created by slaves in New Orleans.
“The structure itself is imbued with meaning,” said Phil Freelon, the lead architect for the museum. “All these things are subtle. That’s intentional. It has a certain sense to it that is African-American, in the way that our culture is expressive in other areas. We believe architecture can evoke those sorts of emotions.”
It is a building that fulfills the original vision of the association members. In a letter addressed to state representatives across the country, the group pled their case for a national memorial, saying, “General memorials do not make the average American think of Negroes. Therefore, the failure to erect a special memorial may and probably will be interpreted as meaning that Negroes have made no great contribution to American advancement in war or in any other field.”
They went on to say: “It would be a splendid idea if all this could find a place in a public building in Washington where it would reflect the greatest possible good throughout the country.”
Washingtonians have watched the building rise from nothing on a grassy knoll at the bustling intersection of Constitution Avenue and 15th Street. Construction on the museum began in 2012, the same year Obama was reelected to a second term. It will open four months before he is set to leave office.
Standing five stories high with 60 percent of the building below ground, the 400,000-square foot structure attempts to hold four centuries of black history. Visitors begin by descending to the basement and then walk up a series of ramps winding through the origins of slavery, to the bonds of Jim Crow, to an integrated society. Exhibits on the upper floors highlight the unique contributions of blacks to areas of American life, including the military, sports, music, the visual arts, film and television, business, the news media and religion.
Artifacts large and small fill the space, sure to evoke feelings of pain and pride from the collective memories of black visitors.
There are the ankle shackles that would have been used to restrain people who became slaves after crossing the Atlantic Ocean from the African continent to the Americas. A bill of sale for an enslaved 16-year-old girl named Polly, who was sold for $600 in Arkansas in 1835.