Book review: Thousands helped build Smithsonian African American History museum

A FOOL’S ERRAND: CREATING THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY AND CULTURE IN THE AGE OF BUSH, OBAMA AND TRUMP

Author: Lonnie G. Bunch III

Smithsonian Books, $29.95

Lonnie G. Bunch III captured my attention early on, in the epigraph preceding the preface, with the chorus from “Truckin,” a popular 1970 Grateful Dead song: "Lately it occurs to me what a long, strange trip it's been." Bunch knows whereof he speaks: He conjured the National Museum of African American History and Culture from idea to reality, in 4,085 days.

Lonnie Bunch Sr., was a black sharecropper in North Carolina. His son, Lonnie Bunch Jr., and his daughter-in-law became schoolteachers and joined the ongoing Great Migration, landing in Belleville, N.J., in Essex County, adjacent to Newark. Bunch III grew up the only African American in a predominantly Italian neighborhood.

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Earlier this year Bunch III was appointed the 14th secretary of the Smithsonian — the first person of color to hold the appointment. The Smithsonian enterprise includes 19 museums, 21 libraries, the National Zoo, and assorted educational and research locations. The African American History museum is the most recent addition to the Smithsonian's presence on the National Mall, its bronze-toned corona standing in sharp contrast to the whiteness of the marble used on the façade of other Mall buildings and monuments.

It's easy to see how Bunch III's initial charge could be conceived as a fool's errand: "Go forth and open a museum!" that in 2005 had no building, no location and no budget. Some 500 fundraising trips later — with multiple stops on most trips and a supporting cast of thousands — the museum opened in September, 2016.

The final price tag for the museum was a cool half-billion dollars: $330 million for the building and $170 million for the interior amenities and exhibit sites. The federal government covered about half the total, the result of legislation signed by George W. Bush in 2003. Members of Congress were crucial for appropriations, of course: John Lewis, James Clyburn and Sam Brownback are singled out. And, at the museum opening, both presidents Obama and Bush were speakers.

The other half of the cost was borne by individuals, corporations and foundations. It was crucial to Bunch that the black community buy in, and it did, along with numerous white individuals and organizations. Leading the way was Oprah Winfrey with a $20 million gift, the largest single donation. Seventy donations of $1 million were made by African American individuals and organizations. The “Charter Members,” overwhelmingly African American, donated from $25 to $999 each for a total of $5 million.

The museum’s outstanding exterior feature, the “Corona,” is made of a bronze-toned composite designed to pay homage to the ornamental ironwork of antebellum African American artisans in Charleston and New Orleans. The museum site was the last remaining empty space on the Mall and, by coincidence or karma, it is adjacent to the monument honoring George Washington, the owner of numerous slaves.

A similar contradiction encapsulates the mission of the museum: To help all Americans remember what they like to recall, but also to remember what they want to forget. Bunch has a doctorate in history, and the museum has teams of top scholars in African American history and culture who ensure that each exhibit proffers "clarity from unvarnished history."

The existence and subsequent success of the museum is due to collective effort, and much of “A Fool's Errand” consists of verbal bouquets for the team: a board who shared the financial heavy lifting; the museum designers and architects; the staff that grew from 2 to 200 by opening day; and Bunch's long-suffering family.

Lonnie G. Bunch III’s story is the epitome of the American Dream, as seen through an African American lens, and this is how he wants the museum to be understood: It displays American history through an African American lens.

Michael Hoffmann is a historian who lives in Duval County.