Lonnie Bunch

WASHINGTON (AP) — The founding director of the Smithsonian’s museum about African American history will now lead the entire system of museums and parks. The Smithsonian Institution on Monday named Lonnie Bunch as its 14th secretary. Bunch was the first director of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. He’ll now lead […]

WASHINGTON (AP) — Lonnie Bunch leans forward to peer inside a slave cabin from Edisto Island, South Carolina. The dark and cramped interior defies his attempts to showcase the small living space its occupants subsisted on. Bunch flips on the flashlight on a borrowed smartphone, illuminating for his guests the craftsmanship, the hard work and […]

  Roland Martin talks to Lonnie Bunch about the opening of the National Museum of African American History and Culture and the major international research into slave ship wrecks focusing on the 1794 wreck of the São José off the coast of South Africa. “I wanted to have at least a piece of a slave […]

While the building excitement for the 2015 opening of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) may seem a long ways off, it is nowhere near as long as the wait for the groundbreaking that took place in February. The museum, which will be located on the National Mall between the […]