Title
A People’s Journey, A Nation’s Past: The National Museum of African American History and Culture
Class Year
2018
Document Type
Blog Post
Publication Date
11-14-2016
Department 1
Civil War Institute
Abstract
On September 24, 2016, the National Museum of African American History and Culture was opened to the public after almost two decades of planning and more than a century of fighting for a memorial for African Americans. Starting in 1915, when a group of United States Colored Troops sought a memorial for their fallen soldiers, African Americans have worked to have their history remembered on a national scale. A congressional commission for a museum dedicated to African Americans was signed in 1929 by Calvin Coolidge, but the stock market crash in October prevented the museum from being built. The memorial was pushed to the back burner until the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s galvanized the need for a museum again. In 1986, a joint resolution proposed by Representatives Mickey Leland of Texas and John Lewis of Georgia as well as Senator Paul Simon of Illinois marked the beginning of the modern fight for a museum dedicated solely to African Americans.
[excerpt]
Copyright Note
This is the author's version of the work. This publication appears in Gettysburg College's institutional repository by permission of the copyright owner for personal use, not for redistribution.
Recommended Citation
Jones, Danielle E., "A People’s Journey, A Nation’s Past: The National Museum of African American History and Culture" (2016). The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History. 181.
https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/compiler/181
Included in
African American Studies Commons, Military History Commons, Public History Commons, United States History Commons
Comments
This blog post originally appeared in The Gettysburg Compiler and was created by students at Gettysburg College.