--- title: Smithsonian Black History Museum: A Century in The Making description: After 100 years, the museum is on track to open in 2016 canonical: https://time.com/3852672/smithsonian-african-american-history-1915-2015/ author: Maya Rhodan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-05-09T15:33:53.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:04:04.541Z article:section: History og:title: Smithsonian Black History Museum: A Century in The Making og:description: After 100 years, the museum is on track to open in 2016 og:url: https://time.com/3852672/smithsonian-african-american-history-1915-2015/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt73523f966fdac26a/6987ef122dce01d9e09e1c16/456478524.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Washington, DC Landmarks og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Smithsonian Black History Museum: A Century in The Making twitter:description: After 100 years, the museum is on track to open in 2016 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt73523f966fdac26a/6987ef122dce01d9e09e1c16/456478524.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # A Century After Its Inception, African American History Museum Looks Ahead by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan May 9, 2015 3:33 PM UTC  Construction continues on the National Museum of African American History and Culture on the National Mall, Oct. 1, 2014 in Washington, DC. Construction continues on the National Museum of African American History and Culture on the National Mall, Oct. 1, 2014 in Washington, DC.Chip Somodevilla--Getty Images by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan May 9, 2015 3:33 PM UTC A mother stoops down to be within earshot of her puffy-pigtailed daughters. Before them stands an oval table enclosed in a glass case. The smaller of the two children stretches a tiny finger toward the yellowing lace covering the caramel-colored wood. It’s likely the table looks like any number of tables those little girls have seen in their lives. To me, it looks like the one where I eagerly placed silverware as a child, while my grandma shouted the multiplication tables from her South Side Chicago kitchen. It’s a table around which any family could discuss the mundane aspects of daily life–the neighbors, the post office. Which is kind of the point, really. On Friday, [“Through the African American Lens: Selections from the Permanent Collection”](http://nmaahc.si.edu/Exhibitions/Lens) opened in the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C., offering a preview of what’s to come when the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture opens in 2016\. The actual building is about a year and a half away from completion, but the artifacts on display are a peek at the tens of thousands that the Smithsonian has gathered over the past decade of planning for the new institution. The show is a preview of what visitors will see when the museum opens: a tent from a civil war camp, a necktie owned by Harriet Tubman, an organ owned by James Brown, notes from a Virginia midwife and dresses by designer Ann Lowe. And the table, of course, which isn’t just any old table. It belonged to Lucinda Todd of Kansas, who served as a secretary of the Topeka Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Todd was one of the 13 plaintiffs who fought for the desegregation of schools in the landmark case _Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka._ That table was where the NAACP Legal Defense Fund convened to prepare for the historic case. In presenting artifacts like it, the museum’s curators hope to highlight the ties between history’s trailblazers and ordinary Americans–a link that has come to have extra meaning in recent weeks. “You think about what a simple table tells us about hope, about community, about family, but also about the strategy that is so integral to change in America,” says Lonnie Bunch, director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture. ### 9 Iconic Photographs From African American History  Photographer Zack Brown shooting dapper men in Harlem, ca. 1937 Eliot Elisofon—Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, © Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin  Elks Parade, Harlem, 1938 Jack Manning—Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, © Estate of Jack Manning  African American Jewish Congregation in Harlem, children studying, 1940. Alexander Alland—Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, © Alexander Alland Jr.  An afternoon game at Table 2, from the series The Way of Life of the Northern Negro, 1946-1948. Wayne F. Miller—Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, © Wayne F. Miller  Ernie Banks, Larry Doby, Matty Brescia, Jackie Robinson, Martin's Stadium, Memphis, Tennessee, 1953. Ernest C. Withers—Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, © Ernest C. Withers Trust  Althea Gibson holding a Wimbledon trophy plate, July 1957. Michael Cole—Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, © Michael Cole Cameraworks/All Rights Reserved  Douglas Burns, Charles Henry Sayles, and Alfred A. Neal sitting on a porch swing, 1958. Rev. Henry Clay Anderson—Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture  James Baldwin by his typewriter, Istanbul 1966. Sedat Pakay—Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, © Sedat Pakay  A boy in front of the Loews 125th Street movie theater, 1976. Dawoud Bey—Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, © Dawoud Bey The Smithsonian Institution’s latest museum has been a century in the making. In 1915, a group of black Civil War veterans began pushing for a memorial and museum dedicated to black service members. A little over a decade later, President Calvin Coolidge approved the construction of a building to serve as a “tribute to the Negro’s contributions to the achievements of America,” according to the Smithsonian Institution. Thanks to the Great Depression, that building never came to fruition. For decades, lawmakers mulled the idea of a museum, noting the impact African Americans have had on the nation, only for the plans to falter. Some argued the National Mall was too crowded, others worried every minority group would want or need a museum. “Once Congress gives the go ahead for African-Americans,” Republican North Carolina Sen. Jesse Helms said in 1994, according to the New York [_Times_](http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/23/us/23smithsonian.html?%5Fr=0)_,_ “how can Congress then say no to Hispanics, and the next group, and the next group after that?” In 2001, a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers led by Rep. John Lewis of Georgia came together to push for the museum’s development. After two years of reports and meetings across the country, Congress was able to pass a law that established the National Museum for African American History and Culture. The last decade has been spent turning that agreement into reality. “When we started, we didn’t have any collections at all. And now, over the last decade, we’ve collected 40,000 artifacts,” Bunch says. Many of the pieces of American history the museum staff has collected have come from everyday Americans, curious about whether or not an old photo or shawl could be of use. Just because a donor wasn’t famous doesn’t mean an artifact isn’t important; in fact, pieces from ordinary people are given pride of place in many instances. “We’re trying to start conversations and share stories that haven’t been told,” co-curator Rhea Combs said during a tour of the exhibit on Friday. The mission of the exhibit and the museum is to show that the African American experience is a fully American one. But that shared American narrative has often been a tense one, and the museum is moving toward fruition at a time when the African American experience–the part that isn’t necessarily shared by other groups–is at the forefront of the national consciousness. African American citizens who never asked to make news have shaped the country’s recent conversations. Accordingly, though the stories of places like Ferguson, Mo., and Baltimore are still being written, the museum is already in the process of collecting artifacts, images and even tweets that mark the latest chapter in the story of race in America. So far, they’ve got a gas mask worn in Ferguson and a hoodie worn during the protests following the death of Trayvon Martin. The African American History Museum, when it opens, will aim to showcase history in motion. 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