National Museum of African American History and Culture revisits African Burial Grounds after 30 years
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Washington, D.C./Canadian-Media: A special conversation on the landmark African Burial Ground project that revealed a greater history behind slavery in the North would be featured by the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC)’s May programming, NMAAHC reported.
The discussion will explore the way slavery has changed in the North since the discovery of the 6-acre burial ground containing the remains of enslaved and free Africans who lived and worked in colonial New York and from Black cemeteries. Michael Blakey, the director of the African Burial Ground project, joined by researchers and preservationists Peggy King Jorde and Joseph Jones, who worked on the project alongside Blakey to lead the conversation.
The only national museum devoted exclusively to the documentation of African American life, history, and culture, NMAAHC was established by Act of Congress in 2003, following decades of efforts to promote and highlight the contributions of African Americans.
To date, the Museum’s collection contains more than 36,000 artifacts, and nearly 100,000 individuals have become members and opened its doors to the public on September 24, 2016, as the 19th and newest museum of the Smithsonian Institution.
The four pillars upon which the NMAAHC stands are to facilitate exploration of African American culture and its history through interactive exhibitions; to raise awareness of the global influences in shaping their stories, their histories, and their cultures, to reveal to the Americans their identity in resiliency, optimism, and spirituality, and to collaborate with new audiences and other museums and educational institutions that have explored and preserved this important history well before this museum was created.
As a public institution open to all, NMAAHC welcomes all to participate, collaborate, and learn more about African American history and culture.
In the words of Lonnie G. Bunch III, founding director of the Museum, “there are few things as powerful and as important as a people, as a nation that is steeped in its history. This Museum will tell the American story through the lens of African American history and culture. This is America’s Story and this museum is for all Americans.”