Obama says African-American museum to tell 'shared story'

President Obama speaks at the groundbreaking for the National Museum of African American History and Culture. / By H. Darr Beiser, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON (USA TODAY) ? The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture ?will be a monument for all time,? President Obama said Wednesday at a groundbreaking ceremony attended by about 600 guests on the National Mall.

The museum, set to open in 2015, will span the broad period of black history from Africa to the present and is the latest addition to the Smithsonian Institution?s 19 museums. Since 2003, some of the museum?s collections have been displayed in a gallery at the National Museum of American History.

Obama said he hopes visitors to the museum will consider black history and culture within the greater context of American history.

?When future generations hear these songs of pain and progress and struggle and sacrifice, I hope they will not think of them as somehow separate from the larger American story. I want them to see it as central ? an important part of our shared story,? he said.

?Today we begin to make manifest on this Mall, on this sacred space, the dreams of many generations who fought for and believed that there should be a site in the nation?s capital that will help all Americans remember and honor African-American history and culture,? museum director Lonnie Bunch said.

?There?s still a great deal of pain that needs to be healed,? said Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., a veteran of the civil rights movement. He said the museum needs to tell the ?400-year story of African-American contribution to this nation?s history, from slavery to the present, without anger or apology.?

Lewis was among lawmakers who repeatedly proposed legislation, passed in 2003, to create the museum.

Rex Ellis, associate director for curatorial affairs for the museum, said roughly 25,000 items have been collected, including contemporary and historical art, a silver tea server from a black silversmith, Chuck Berry?s Cadillac and a dress that belonged to Rosa Parks.

The museum will sit at a corner between the American history museum and the Washington Monument.

Denise Dennis, president of the Dennis Farm, a charitable land trust in Pennsylvania, said her family has owned the land since it was settled by her free black ancestors in the 1790s. Her family will donate a variety of historical artifacts ? including books, flatware and handwritten documents ? to the museum.

?For us, it?s wonderful, because our story is symbolic of the larger story,? Dennis said.

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