WP: Obama helps break ground on new Smithsonian’s black history museum on National Mall

In honor of Black History Month, I am very delighted that the Smithsonian Museum of African-American History is one step closer to construction in the National Mall. Future generations need to understand the African-American experience in this country, which goes back to the early 1600s. The Washington Post includes remarks from President Barack Obama:

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama heralded a new national black history museum as “not just a record of tragedy, but a celebration of life” as he marked Wednesday’s groundbreaking of the long-sought-after museum on the National Mall.

During his brief remarks, Obama said the museum — the 19th in the Smithsonian Institution — would help future generations remember the sometimes difficult, often inspirational role, that African Americans have played in the nation’s history. And he said it was fitting that a museum telling the history of black life, art and culture would be located on the National Mall in the capital city.

“It was on this ground long ago that lives were once traded, where hundreds of thousands once marched for jobs and for freedom,” Obama said. “It was here that the pillars of democracy were built often by black hands.”