Monday Open Thread: The Opening of the National Museum of African-American History

Posted on September 26, 2016 by rikyrah

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This past Saturday was the opening of the new National Museum of African-American History. Whenever I get back to Washington, DC, I am going to spend at least 2 days at this museum. It looks magnificent.

It was a glorious opening ceremony.

hat tip-The Obama Diary

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Lonnie Bunch, the head of this project, who strapped it onto his back, and made it happen.

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Pete Souza: Vice President Joe Biden greets 99-year-old Ruth Bonner, a daughter of a young slave who escaped to freedom, as Dr. Jill Biden greets another generation of the Bonner family who rang the Freedom Bell with the President and First Lady to mark the official opening of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.

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Program

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Samuel L. Jackson and Jesse Jackson

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Stevie Wonder

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Dionne Warwick

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Baseball Legend Henry ‘ Hank’ Aaron

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President Obama hugs Congressman John Lewis.

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Pete Souza: President Obama greets the Tennessee State University Marching Band at the White House following a reception for the opening of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. The band entertained arriving guests on the South Lawn.

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60 Responses to Monday Open Thread: The Opening of the National Museum of African-American History

  2. Liza says:
    September 26, 2016 at 9:11 pm

    Nina Turner can’t take anymore of Trump / Hillary either.

    I tried! I can't take it anymore #Debates2016 😬— Nina Turner (@ninaturner) September 27, 2016

    //platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

    Reply
  3. Liza says:
    September 26, 2016 at 9:07 pm

    This is a great post about the new museum, Rikyrah. Mr. Lonnie Bunch must be the happiest guy in the USA right now. This is an incredible achievement for all of those involved and I absolutely have to see this museum someday.

    Reply
  6. yahtzeebutterfly says:
    September 26, 2016 at 5:40 pm

    So, the debate is tonight at 9:00pm

    Any thoughts?

    Reply
  9. Ametia says:
    September 26, 2016 at 4:00 pm

    Helllo Everyone! I’m having a great time on vacation. Love the post, Rikyrah. Thanks

    Reply
  12. rikyrah says:
    September 26, 2016 at 11:37 am

    Trump Is So Awful Even the Rich are Voting Against Their Own Interests
    by David Atkins
    September 25, 2016 7:00 AM

    Hillary Clinton has had a pretty good week, all things considered. Clinton’s appearance on Between Two Ferns was widely watched and well received, humanizing her in a millennial-friendly setting. She has refocused her campaign to be less about Trump’s weaknesses than on her agenda to improve Americans’ lives. Both of these should help shore up her weakness with millennial voters.

    Another big help, if she can stay focused on it and get the press to cover it in more depth, is her proposal to increase the estate tax to 65%. It’s the sort of economic populist approach that the country needs, and that the voters Clinton needs to turn out will appreciate.

    It could, in theory, come at the expense of the very wealthy and their adherents. But so far, Clinton is doing just fine on those fronts–in fact, for the first time in decades high-income voters are favoring the Democrat to enter the Oval Office:

    Reply
  15. yahtzeebutterfly says:
    September 26, 2016 at 10:16 am

    Angelique Kidjo singing Redemption Song at dedication ceremony of the National African American Museum:
    https://youtu.be/WE5placTtLw&rel=0

    Old pirates, yes, they rob I;
    Sold I to the merchant ships,
    Minutes after they took I
    From the bottomless pit.

    But my hand was made strong
    By the ‘and of the Almighty.
    We forward in this generation
    Triumphantly.
    Won’t you help to sing
    These songs of freedom? –
    ‘Cause all I ever have:
    Redemption songs;
    Redemption songs.

    Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery;
    None but ourselves can free our minds.
    Have no fear for atomic energy,
    ‘Cause none of them can stop the time.
    How long shall they kill our prophets,
    While we stand aside and look? Ooh!
    Some say it’s just a part of it:
    We’ve got to fulfil de book.

    Won’t you help to sing
    These songs of freedom? –

    Won’t you help to sing
    These songs of freedom? –
    ‘Cause all I ever have:
    Redemption songs;
    Redemption songs;
    Redemption songs.

    Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery;
    None but ourselves can free our mind.
    Wo! Have no fear for atomic energy,
    ‘Cause none of them-a can-a stop-a the time.
    How long shall they kill our prophets,
    While we stand aside and look?
    Yes, some say it’s just a part of it:
    We’ve got to fulfil de book.
    Won’t you help to sing
    Dese songs of freedom? –
    ‘Cause all I ever had:
    Redemption songs –
    All I ever had:
    Redemption songs:
    These songs of freedom,
    Songs of freedom.

    Reply
  16. rikyrah says:
    September 26, 2016 at 10:00 am

    If Facts Don’t Matter, Presidential Debates Are Just a Reality Show
    by David Atkins
    September 25, 2016 3:09 PM

    Janet Brown, the executive director of the Commission on Presidential Debates has declared that the debates should be a fact-check-free zone:

    “I think personally, if you start getting into fact-checking, I’m not sure. What is a big fact? What’s a little fact? And if you and I have different sources of information, does your source about the unemployment rate agree with my source? I don’t think it’s a good idea to get the moderator into essentially serving as the Encyclopedia Britannica.”

    This is terrible on many levels. Debates are supposed to illustrate how the candidates would respond to a variety of policy challenges. Those challenges depend on having a shared set of facts: a 10% unemployment rate would create a very different policy environment from a 5% unemployment. If each candidate is claiming different unemployment statistics, you don’t have a debate. You have a noisy argument that sheds a lot of heat and no light. It’s a useless exercise.

    Moreover, the example she gave is frankly bizarre. It’s one thing to dispute, say, models of economic growth or the efficacy of various foreign policy approaches. But the unemployment rate? That has a single reliable source: the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That is literally the only legitimate source for unemployment numbers. There is a small debate within economic circles as to whether the BLS unemployment statistics appropriately reflect the reality of economic pain within the country, in terms of not counting people who stopped looking for work or potentially ignoring too many of the underemployed. Some people use a U6 model for unemployment rather than a U3 model. But the starting point for any reasonable discussion of the unemployment rate is the official BLS number.

    If one candidate says that unemployment is at 5% and the other candidate says it’s much higher, it’s absolutely the job of a moderator to inform the public that the official BLS statistics support one candidate’s assertion. The candidate trying to claim an alternate reality should then be pressed to say why they disbelieve the BLS, proving either that they’re a conspiracy monger, or potentially that they have a sophisticated critique of the government’s economic model–which would certainly be an interesting and informative conversation, but one that can only happen in the context of a single, authoritative factual source acknowledged by both candidates.

    Reply
  17. yahtzeebutterfly says:
    September 26, 2016 at 9:49 am

    Here is Patty LaBella moving performance of A Change Is Gonna Come at the National African American Museum dedication:

    https://youtu.be/V2s6DFxR-Cw&rel=0

    Reply
  18. yahtzeebutterfly says:
    September 26, 2016 at 9:44 am

    Excerpt from Rep. John Lewis’ speech at the ceremony dedicating the National Museum of African American History and Culture:

    I can hear the distant voice of our ancestors whispering by the night fire, “Steal away, Steal away home. We ain’t got time to stay here”. Or a big, bold choir shouting, “I woke up this morning with my mind stayed on freedom.” All their voices–roaming for centuries–have finally found their home here, in this great monument to our pain, our suffering, and our victory.

    https://c.o0bg.com/rf/image_960w/Boston/2011-2020/2016/09/24/BostonGlobe.com/National/Images/AFP_GG51Q.jpg

    Reply
  19. yahtzeebutterfly says:
    September 26, 2016 at 9:38 am

    Excerpt from President Obama’s speech at the ceremony dedicating the National Museum of African American History and Culture:

    I, too, am America. The great historian John Hope Franklin, who helped to get this museum started, once said, “Good history is a good foundation for a better present and future.”  He understood the best history doesn’t just sit behind a glass case; it helps us to understand what’s outside the case.  The best history helps us recognize the mistakes that we’ve made and the dark corners of the human spirit that we need to guard against.  And, yes, a clear-eyed view of history can make us uncomfortable. It’ll 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. 

    https://fortunedotcom.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/barack-obama-museum-opening.jpg?w=1024

    Reply
  20. yahtzeebutterfly says:
    September 26, 2016 at 9:00 am

    Thanks for your fabulous post on the African American museum dedication, Rikyrah!

    A highlight from Obama’s speech at the ceremony dedicating the National Museum of African American History and Culture:

    http://cnsmaryland.org/interactives/fall-2016/sept/nmaahc-timeline/auctionblock.jpg

    “Below us, this building reaches down seventy feet, its roots spreading far wider and deeper than any tree on this Mall.  And on its lowest level, after you walk past remnants of a slave ship, after you reflect on the immortal declaration that “all men are created equal,” you can see a block of stone.  On top of this stone sits a historical marker, weathered by the ages.  That marker reads:  “General Andrew Jackson and Henry Clay spoke from this slave block during the year 1830.” 

    “I want you to think about this.  Consider what this artifact tells us about history, about how it’s told, and about what can be cast aside.  On a stone where day after day for years men and women were torn from their spouse or their child, shackled and bound, and bought and sold and bid like cattle on a stone worn down by the tragedy of over a thousand bare feet. For a long time the only thing we considered important, the singular thing we once chose to commemorate as “history” with a plaque, were the unmemorable speeches of two powerful men. 

    “And that block, I think, explains why this museum is so necessary.  Because that same object, reframed, put in context, tells us so much more.  As Americans we rightfully passed on the tales of the giants who built this country, who led armies into battle, who 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.”

    http://img.wonkette.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Jackson-slave-block.jpg

    Reply
  29. rikyrah says:
    September 26, 2016 at 5:02 am

    Good Morning 😀, Everyone 😊

    Reply

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