Barack Obama opens first museum dedicated to history of black Americans

The veteran civil rights campaigner John Lewis called it “a dream come true”, while America’s first black president said it would help tell a “richer and fuller” story of the nation’s history.

On Saturday, the first national museum dedicated to the history of black Americans opened in Washington DC. It was formally inaugurated by President Barack Obama, who was joined by his predecessor, George W Bush, who in 2003 signed legislation to enable the construction of the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Speaking at the ceremony, Mr Obama urged African-Americans to “come here and see the power of your own agency”.

“The very fact of this day does not prove that America is perfect, but it does validate the ideas of our founding - that this country born of change, of revolution, of we the people, that this country can get better,” he said.

“We are not a burden on America. Or a stain on America, we are America. And that's what this museum explains.”

Mr Bush said that it was important that a nation that so valued freedom recognised that it was founded on bondage and the work of millions who were kept in chains. A great nation does not hide from its history, he said, “it faces its flaws and corrects them”.

open image in gallery

The opening of the museum comes as the debate about race relations in the country occupies its most prominent position for decades.

The efforts of the Black Lives Matter movement to highlight the stream of killings by police of black and Latino suspects, the presidency of Mr Obama and the backlash against him, have all combined to elevate the issue within the media, and public discourse.

And the official opening came as the city of Charlotte has seen four successive nights of protests - the last two nights entirely peaceful - following the shooting by police of a 43-year-old black man, Keith Scott.

The Associated Press said Mr Obama nd first lady Michelle Obama joined Ruth Bonner, a 99-year-old direct descendent of a slave, and her family as they rang a bell from the historic First Baptist Church of Williamsburg, Virginia, to signal that the museum was officially open.

The church, believed to be among the first Baptist churches organised entirely by black people, acquired its Freedom Bell in 1886. It will return to the church for its 240th anniversary later this year.

Mr Lewis, a Democratic congressman from Georgia who co-sponsored the bill that created the museum, said he hopes visitors will come away with a healthy respect for human dignity, “and a stronger commitment to the idea of justice, truth and democracy”.

Thousands gathered on the National Mall to watch the museum officially open its doors and to be among the first inside.

“It’s like walking across the desert and finally getting to a fountain of water to quench your thirst. It's absolutely breathtaking for me,” said Verna Eggleston, 61, of New York City, who was touring the museum.

Construction was completed earlier this year on the 400,000-square-foot museum designed by British-Ghanaian architect David Adjaye.

Inside, museum officials say they have nearly 3,000 items occupying 85,000 square feet of display space, including exhibits like a Tuskegee Airmen training plane and the casket of Emmitt Till, an African-American boy whose murder helped rally the civil rights movement.

Millions of donors, known and unknown, contributed to the $315m in private funding raised before the museum’s opening.

As part of the opening ceremony, Winfrey and actor Will Smith read lines of famous black writers, from Maya Angelou to Langston Hughes, Toni Morrison and Martin Luther King Jr.