Behind the Pages

“I, Too, Am America”

 

I waited in a long line to enter the museum. I waited in a long line to walk into the exhibits. I waited in a long line to buy lunch. I even waited in a long line to crowd into the gift shop.

 

Was all that waiting worth it? Yes!

 

The National Museum of African American History and Culture stands on a 5-acre site on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. I spent seven hours touring the complex (including a tasty stop in its Sweet Home Café) and left only because they were shutting off the lights.

 

The museum encompasses “all of the struggle, all of the pain, all of the triumph, all of the joy – and all that we have yet to do,” noted a teacher who scored a ticket on opening day nine years ago, September 2016. 

 

As then President Obama spoke at that opening, first lady Michelle Obama wiped away tears.

 

“African American history is not somehow separate from our larger American story. It’s not the underside of the American story. It is central to the American story,” the president said.

 

The museum displays how American values like resiliency, optimism and spirituality are reflected in that story, notes the curators. They’ve done an exceptional job of pulling together 36,000 artifacts - from community to fashion, military to religion - and telling their tales.

 

To start my visit, I descended three floors to the subterranean history galleries. The tragic saga began in the year 1400, with the trans-Atlantic slave trade, and continued through segregation.

 

I could barely take in all the powerful objects, images and text. An old slave cabin. A bill of sale for a girl. The last line of a 1926 Langston Hughes poem, “I, too, am America.” A segregated railroad car.

 

Then, I hiked aboveground, where the mood shifted in salute to African American cultural contributions in areas including film, television, theater, art, sports, dance and music. A candy-red Cadillac driven by Chuck Berry. Clips of stand-up routines from black comedians. A statue of Michael Jordan shooting a basket.

 

Suffering, persevering and triumphing are all there in a replica of the famous “whites-only” F.W. Woolworth lunch counter in Greensboro, where four black college students occupied stools in 1960. Their action sparked the sit-in movement.

 

 

 

If you can’t make it to Washington, head to Greensboro, a 30- to 90-minute drive from the Triangle. We’re fortunate that the original portion of that lunch counter has never been moved and is the heart of the International Civil Rights Center & Museum.

 

This illuminating, 30,000-square-foot witness to the struggle for equality stands on the site of the shuttered Woolworth. It, too, is well worth a visit.

 

 

Stay inspired,

Debra Simon, Editor & Publisher

 

Photos courtesy: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture