Sneak peek of new Smithsonian shows rich black history

The unification of the old and the new, and the use of modern techniques to explain the historical past — that's what the National Museum of African American History and Culture and Bunch, its founding director, are striving for when the newest Smithsonian museum opens on the National Mall next month.

Proud of the striking, dark brown angular museum, Bunch sees its goal as helping all Americans understand and appreciate the rich cultural history of African-Americans, and to shine a light on the contributions and achievements of blacks to what the United States has become.

The museum is designed to take visitors through African-American history in the United States from slavery, on the lower level, to a reproduction of Oprah Winfrey's television set upstairs and artifacts from Obama's first presidential campaign.

Parliament Funkadelic's Mothership is completely covered, although its distinctive shape is instantly recognizable; a Maya Angelou quote placard "I am the dream and the hope of the slave" sits on a table waiting to be affixed to a wall along with quotes from Obama, Nikki Giovanni and Black Lives Matter founder Alicia Garza; and the playbill announcing Ira Aldridge as the first black man to play Shakespeare's Othello in 1857 in England is hidden behind brown paper on the wall to keep it safe.

Some of the artifacts are so big the museum had to be built around them: a 90-year-old, 44-seat Southern Railway car that will help explain Jim Crow laws in the South, and 20-foot-plus guard tower from the Louisiana State Penitentiary prison called "Angola" after the plantation that once stood in its stead, to explore the use of policing and laws down South to help keep newly freed blacks in bondage.

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