National Museum of African American History and Culture

Photo: Frank Schulenburg, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)

A stop on Washington DC National Mall Walking Tour, a free self-guided tour.

The bronze-colored building beside the Washington Monument is the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the newest Smithsonian museum on the Mall. Congress established it in 2003, and it opened on September 24, 2016. Architect David Adjaye, working with Phil Freelon, based its three-tiered shape on crowns from Yoruba art in West Africa; the screen around it is made of about 3,600 cast-aluminum panels.

The history galleries start below ground with the transatlantic slave trade and climb, era by era, toward the present. Along the way you pass a cabin built by enslaved people on Edisto Island, South Carolina, moved here board by board; a hymnal and shawl that belonged to Harriet Tubman; and the casket of Emmett Till, the 14-year-old whose murder in 1955 helped ignite the civil rights movement. The upper floors turn to culture, music and sports.

Plan at least two to three hours. Admission is free, but the museum often uses timed-entry passes, so check its website before you go. The Sweet Home Cafe on the lower level serves regional African American cooking.

More on Wikipedia: National Museum of African American History and Culture · Phil Freelon · Harriet Tubman · Emmett Till

National Museum of African American History and Culture

Stops on this tour