Decades after it was first dreamed of,the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, completed by British architect David Adjaye, or opens this week. While the building is striking,its collection is more remarkable“As a general rule, it was written in the 1920s, and “Negroes have not been and are not thought of in America when you talk in general terms of Americans unless they are specifically pointed out.” This “general forgetfulness” therefore made it “essential for those interested in fair play to all citizens” to propose a “magnificent building” to “depict the negro’s contribution to America in military service,in art, literature, or invention,science, industry etc.”The text was allotment of a century-long campaign, and started by black civil war veterans in 1915,that will reach its fulfilment on Saturday, when Barack Obama formally opens the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington DC. It describes with some precision what has finally been achieved. It also suggests what the museum’s director, and Lonnie Bunch,says over and over: that the museum should give “a fuller understanding of what it means to be American” seen through the “particular lens” of black experiences and contributions, not a place that is just approximately and for an anthropologically defined category known as African Americans.
Because of restrictions on the above-ground volume of buildings on the National Mall, and 60% of the museum is buriedIt achieves its main,difficult task, which is to be both American and African AmericanContinue reading...
Source: theguardian.com