Barack Obama opens historic African American Museum in Washington
President Barack Obama has opened the National Museum of African American History and Culture, saying the institution is dedicated to the many threads of black history and achievement.
- First national US museum documenting oppression of black people
- African-American history central to American story, Mr Obama says
- Museum first conceived of a century ago
The first black president of the United States cut the ribbon to inaugurate the 37,000-square-metre, bronze-clad edifice before thousands of spectators, who gathered in the nation's capital to witness the historic opening.
"Beyond the majesty of the building, what makes this occasion so special is the larger story it contains," said Mr Obama at the star-studded public ceremony that included the likes of Stevie Wonder and Oprah Winfrey.
"African-American history is not somehow separate from our larger American story. It's not the underside of the American story," he said.
"It is central to the American story."
(AFP: Zach Gibson)
The Smithsonian's 19th and latest addition to its sprawling museum and research complex is the first national museum tasked with documenting the uncomfortable truths of the country's systematic oppression of black people, while also honouring the integral role of African-American culture.
The 36,000 items in the collection range from trade goods used to buy slaves in Africa to a segregated railway car from the 1920s and a red Cadillac convertible belonging to rock 'n' roll pioneer Chuck Berry.
Other displays include a slave cabin from South Carolina, a robe used by boxing great Muhammad Ali and the coffin of Emmett Till, whose 1955 murder in Mississippi helped galvanise the civil rights movement.
"A clear-eyed view of history can make us uncomfortable," Mr Obama said.
"It will shake us out of familiar narratives."
"But it is precisely 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."
The dramatic building, set in a prime location near the White House and the Washington Monument, features three inverted-pyramid tiers sheathed in bronze-painted filigree panels that house more than 34,000 objects, nearly half of them donated.
The museum, which was first conceived of a century ago, opens amid ever-heightening racial tensions, as national outrage grows over the spate of deaths of black men at the hands of police.