Best quotes from Obama's speech at African-American museum opening
President Obama spoke at the opening National Museum of African American History and Culture on Saturday.
The 400,000-square-foot museum displays more than 3,000 artifacts, such as the dress Rosa Parks was sewing before she refused to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Ala., in 1955; a bill of sale for a 16-year-old girl named Polly, who was transferred between owners in 1835 for $600; and shackles used to restrain slaves in the holds of ships on the Middle Passage between Africa and North America.
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Here are some of the best quotes from Obama's speech:
• "Today, as so many generations have before, we gather on our National Mall to tell an essential part of our American story — one that has at times been overlooked — we come not just for today, but for all time."
• "As Americans, we rightfully passed on the tales of the giants who built this country; who led armies into battle and waged seminal debates in the halls of Congress and the corridors of power. But too often, we ignored or forgot the stories of millions upon millions of others, who built this nation just as surely, whose humble eloquence, whose calloused hands, whose steady drive helped to create cities, erect industries, build the arsenals of democracy."
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• "It reaffirms that all of us are America — that 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. That our glory derives not just from our most obvious triumphs, but how we’ve wrested triumph from tragedy, and how we've been able to remake ourselves, again and again and again, in accordance with our highest ideals. I, too, am America."
• "And, yes, a clear-eyed view of history can make us uncomfortable, and shake us out of familiar narratives. But it is precisely because of that discomfort that we learn and grow and harness our collective power to make this nation more perfect. That’s the American story that this museum tells — one of suffering and delight; one of fear but also of hope; of wandering in the wilderness and then seeing out on the horizon a glimmer of the Promised Land."
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• "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, this country born of revolution, this country of we, the people, this country can get better."
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• "It is a monument, no less than the others on this Mall, to the deep and abiding love for this country, and the ideals upon which it is founded. For we, too, are America."