Highly Anticipated African American History Museum Begins Its Mission

WASHINGTON — Higher education gets a big boost this week as thousands of people from across the nation are expected to gather here to celebrate the opening, see and tour the Smithsonian Institution’s new and massive National Museum of African American History and Culture.

The opening marks the successful conclusion of a Black history idea that’s been championed in different ways and the cause of generations across color, ethnic and income groups for more than 100 years.

With its construction finally approved in 2003 by Congress and signed into law in by then President George Bush, the half-billion dollar, eight floor museum is expected to get its final official blessings this Saturday at an opening program where President Obama is to speak of the symbolic and substantive meaning of the museum to the entire nation.

“This is a real big deal for historians,” said Dr. Edna Medford, the noted Civil War historian and professor of history. She was hired by the Smithsonian earlier this year to help train docents at the African American Museum of History and Culture on the Civil War and emancipation.

“The museum will show we (Black Americans) have a culture, we have a history,” said Medford, a history professor at Howard University.

Medford is among several dozen historians the Smithsonian turned to in developing its African American history and culture facility, just as it has consulted knowledgeable academicians for years to help develop programs and exhibits for its other 19 museums, all owned by the public and admission free to visitors.

“You can’t get a true picture of America without understanding and being aware of African American history,” said historian Dr. Reavis Mitchell Jr., chairman of the Tennessee Historical Commission, touting the importance of the new Smithsonian Institution entity.