Two Trips to the African American History Museum

I can’t believe that I chronicled neither my 2016 nor my 2019 visit to the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC)!

** Sigh **

Anyway, since I’m hoping to return to the museum during this month (August, 2024), I at least want to leave a blog post marking the earlier visits.

December 26, 2016

I visited the NMAAHC for the first time just three months after it opened to the public in September 2016. (I have always been thankful that it opened before the change in presidential administrations because I believe that they would have done all they could to “kill it in the crib.” The wait list for tickets was months long, especially if a group wanted tickets. Still, the Joneses descended en masse to see our history gathered on one site at last.

My nephew and godson volunteered to be my escort, which at that time consisted of steering me in a borrowed wheelchair around the museum. It quickly became obvious that we had no chance to see everything in one visit. And the line to see the slave ship that was on display in the basement was hours long all by itself. Instead, the family chose to eat together in the cafeteria, which had sections that offered regional cuisine from across the United States.

I’ve posted a few of the pictures I took below:

The complete set is available at: https://singin1.com/piwigo/index.php?/category/African-American-Museum-December-2016.

It was so nice to see the acknowledgement of African American contributions to classical music as well as to popular music.

December 30, 2019

The Joneses returned to the NMAAHC on December 30th. Unfortunately, my mother had passed nearly two years beforehand, so she didn’t join us as she did in 2016.

Although we didn’t need to order free tickets months in advance this time, the museum is still popular enough that tickets were still required to get admission.

Again, I did not manage to get to the entire museum, and–unfortunately–the slave ship we missed in 2016 was no longer on exhibit. It was still a fascinating experience, especially shared with two of my nieces. I was reminded of years earlier when we visited a children’s historical museum, and I explained the concept of segregation with an example of two of us with pierced ears having privileges that the other niece couldn’t share. Simplistic but a clear demonstration of a small difference can be made into a big difference (I hope I didn’t traumatize either of them).

Anyway, some pictures from that trip:

Find the entire set at: https://singin1.com/piwigo/index.php?/category/African-American-Museum-December-2019

If I can get to the museum when I plan, I should be there the last week they are planning an exhibit on Afrofuturism. Hopefully, I will get the blog post done soon afterwards.