A museum dedicated to African American history is scheduled to open in Washington, DC in 2015.
The Museum of African American History and Culture will be the Smithsonian’s 19th museum and the only one devoted exclusively to the documentation of African American life, art, history and culture.
Under legislative mandate, its exhibitions and programs are being designed to cover a wide arc of American history---slavery, reconstruction, the Harlem Renaissance, the Great Migrations to the North and West, Segregation, the Civil Rights movement, and beyond.
The museum will also celebrate African American creativity and cultural expressions. Ground-breaking for the building is scheduled for 2012.
Lonnie Bunch, a founding director of the museum, recently sat down with VOA Radio. He discussed building design, collecting efforts, and fund-raising, three years after the Museum's historic inception.