February 16, 2006

Nearly 100 years after the idea was first put forward, the Smithsonian Institution has officially chosen a site to house a National Museum of African-American History and Culture.

On January 30, the Smithsonian’s Board of Regents selected a prominent five-acre location for the future museum on Washington, D.C.’s Mall, directly northeast of the Washington Monument. The central site, selected from four final possibilities, carries great symbolism for the museum’s supporters.

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“We are pleased because it is quite fitting that the experience of African Americans takes its place among the museums and monuments that...honor and celebrates the history and the cultural contributions of all who have labored, sacrificed, and dreamed to make this country great,” said Lonnie Bunch, director of the new museum.

Among the opponents of the location, however, is Judy Feldman, Chair of the National Coalition to Save Our Mall, a citizens group that supports a moratorium on all new Mall construction. “The Mall is full and overloaded and it can’t accommodate all the things that are happening,” says Feldman. “We understand why the African American museum wants to be on the Mall,” she stresses, but she says that a better solution would be to extend the Mall’s axis to the Potomac River, creating more public space, and to locate the museum on the Banneker Overlook, a raised site located close to the river. The Potomac is currently undergoing a large redevelopment.

The museum will likely cover some 350,000 square feet, matching the National Museum of the American Indian, which opened in 2004. The cost is estimated at $300 to $500 million, half of which will be provided by the federal government.

Currently, museum officials have no comment on the design process. For now, the staff is hoping to raise money, acquire collections and hire a project director. Mr. Bunch aims to open the museum’s doors “in under a decade.”

Ilan Kayatsky