In the post dawn hours on Saturday September 23, 2017, a bus carrying passengers consisting of church family and friends set out to make a 4.5-hour trip from Paterson NJ to Washington DC. The purpose of the trip? To visit the National Museum of African-American History and Culture. Upon arriving in Washington, the first stop was a short visit to the Martin Luther King, Junior memorial. On this Saturday in fall, the weather was unseasonably warm and felt more like a summer beach day than autumn. The sky, a sea of blue with white fluffy clouds was the perfect backdrop for the majesty of the Martin Luther King, Jr. memorial. Walking into the park the first thing you see is the beginning of the Inscription Wall with quotes from Dr King’s speeches, sermons and other writings. The second thing you see is the awe-inspiring granite statue of Dr. King rising out of the Stone of Hope. For those seeing it for the first, second or perhaps the third time, the sight does not get old.
The memorial opened to the public on August 22, 2011. The official address is 1964 Independence Avenue, S.W. which commemorates the year the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin became law.
The second stop on our trip was the National Museum of African-American History and Culture (NMAAHC). The museum sits on prime real estate on the National Mall and we were blessed to visit on the weekend of its first anniversary celebration. For the anniversary, the museum extended its hours; a Community Day celebration was being held outside on the museum’s grounds and other activities were going on inside.
From the outside of the museum, you felt that something special was abou
t to happen once you entered the doors. Maybe it was from walking on the platform that 
former Presidents, First Ladies and other dignitaries stood on – a year before during the opening celebration – that caused the feeling. Once we entered the doors the feeling intensified. The museum is simply beautiful beyond words. The history of the African-American experience in this country is displayed and presented in ways that causes feelings of anger (depictions of slave ships with actual artifacts including chains, bill of sales), hurt (Jim Crow laws, actual KKK clothing), pain (Emmett Till’s coffin), hope (civil rights movement), nostalgia (Michael Jackson’s fedora, rap icons, black tv shows) and finally pride (the founding of historical black colleges (HBCU’s), achievements in sports/ entertainment, art, and the Inauguration of President Barack Obama). All are beautifully presented visually and audibly. There is so much to see and experience that one could easily become overwhelmed. The genius of the museum, however, is that it does not. The only question I had upon leaving was how soon can I come back?
Some notable things to see are: a slave cabin, Nat Turner’s Bible, Harriet Tubman’s shawl, Tuskegee Airmen plane, a segregated railway car, Chuck Berry’s Cadillac and hundreds more!
The museum opened on September 24, 2016 and is closed only one day out of the year- Christmas. Timed entry passes are available on-line. See more images in the gallery below.
Gallery
