Wednesday Buzz: New Museum of African American History to open in D.C.

Just last week, President Obama and First Lady Laura Bush joined Wednesday to celebrate the start of construction for the National Museum of African American History and Culture. The museum will be the 19th Smithsonian Museum.

The AP reports on The Post that the museum will be a seven-level structure with exhibit space underground. It will be located between the Washington Monument and the National Museum of American History. The most distinctive feature of the building will be an inverted pyramid called the Carona, which will be bronze-coated. The design of the panels is inspired by the African American-made ironwork grilles from Charleston and New Orleans

The museum will include many showcases, including Harriet Tumban's shawl, a segregated railroad car from the Jim Crow-era, Emmett Till's casket, and galleries displaying medals and photos of black World War I troops, an airplane used for training the Tuskegee Airmen. The plane was donated last year.

“We will have stories that will make you smile and stories that will make you cry,” the museum’s director, Lonnie Bunch , told The Associated Press.

President Obama said, "I want them to see how ordinary Americans can do extraordinary things … how men and women just like them have the courage to right a wrong," he said. "I want them to appreciate this museum not just as a record of tragedy but as a celebration of life."

The museum is set to open in 2015. I know for a fact I cannot wait to go.

Earlier museums have focused on the Holocaust and to Native American history, and there is legislation to create a Smithsonian American Latino Museum.

For more information about the funding for the museum, more detail on what exhibits will be displayed, and construction of the building visit The Washington Post.

Source: The Washington Post