Post date: Feb 22, 2012 8:30:23 PM
The $500 million National Museum of African American History and Culture will be the only national museum devoted solely to black life, art, history and culture.
"It was here that the pillars of our democracy were built, often by black hands. And it is on this spot -- alongside the monuments to those who gave birth to this nation, and those who worked so hard to perfect it -- that generations will remember the sometimes difficult, often inspirational, but always central role that African Americans have played in the life of our country," Obama said at the groundbreaking for the museum which is scheduled to open in 2015 on the National Mall.
As the first shovel of dirt is turned ahead of construction of the new Smithsonian Museum of African American History and Culture on the Mall in Washington, U.S. President Barack Obama says the museum will recollect the pain and progress of black Americans.
WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES (FEBRUARY 22, 2012) (RESTRICTED POOL) - Political and cultural figures joined to break ground on Wednesday (February 22) for a new Smithsonian museum in Washington observing the history and culture of African-Americans which U.S. President Barack Obama called a symbol of Americans' shared national experience.
The seven-level museum, which will be situated between the Washington Monument and the National Museum of American History, is the culmination of efforts started a century ago by black Civil War soldiers and carried on through the civil rights movment of the 1960s.
"This day has been a long time coming," Obama said.
It was expected that the museum would deal forthrightly with the America's history of enslavement of African-Americans from the first days of its nation's founding to the end of the Civil War, as well as the economic disenfranchisement which still hampers some African-Americans to the present.
"When future generations hear these songs of pain and progress and struggle and sacrifice, I hope they will not think of them as somehow separate from the larger American story. I want them to see it as central -- an important part of our shared story. A call to see ourselves in one another. A call to remember that each of us is made in God's image. That's the history we will preserve within these walls," Obama said.
The museum will be the 19th in the Smithsonian system, will have most of its display space underground so that the vista of the National Mall will be preserved. It is expected to draw 3 million to 3.5 million visitors each year.