Making the Past Present
The founding director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African
American History and Culture is at work to make his vision a reality
By B. Denise Hawkins
WASHINGTON
Historian Lonnie G. Bunch III talks often about “the ancestors.” On the job since July, the founding director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture knows that the “eyes of the world” are trained on him now. But he says knowing that “the eyes of the ancestors” are looking down on him is what gives him a sense of honor and feelings of both trepidation and humility.
Since discovering one of those ancestors, he hasn’t let her go. In fact, she’s taken up residence in his office. Her face is haggard. Her body is small. She is nameless. The black-and-white 1880s photograph is of a slave making her way from the fields. Her framed image is one of Bunch’s treasures.
“This woman, clearly a slave … is carrying a hoe that’s bigger than she is, and a basket that’s large. And if you look at the picture closely, her knuckles are swollen, the dress is tattered and yet she’s striving forward,” Bunch says. “Whenever I’m ready to quit, I look at that picture and say, if she did it, so can I. That’s what history does to me. History is really the greatest inspiration that we can have.”
Bunch’s grandfather and parents, all graduates from historically Black Shaw College (now Shaw University), provided his early lessons in perseverance. His personal journey began in Belleville, N.J., as did his love of history and stories. History was all over his house, Bunch remembers. It filled the backyard when company came for barbeques. It was in the kitchen. The past was always present.
