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This weekend was birthday (woo!) and I was lucky enough to get the day off. I was also lucky enough to get tickets to the National Museum of African American History and Culture in DC. They are quite difficult to get and involve waking up at 6:30 and scrambling to secure a timed entry pass. All of that aside, the museum is beyond tremendous. It’s actually my second time attending and each time I wish I could be there for longer and have a more intimate experience. Both the breadth and the depth of the museum is just incredibly impressive and impactful. 

Similarly to our Freedom Tour experience, both times I’ve visited the museum I’m shocked by how much I didn’t know and how limited my previous experiences (such as in middle or high school) with these topics of race and minority history are.  Shockingly, my father is a progressive history teacher so I wonder what some of the experiences my peers had were and the ways this shaped their current world view. 

I was visiting the museum, it kept occurring to me how the museum is a small, and incredibly necessary step in the right direction of working towards justice for the appalling treatment of Black and African Americans in the history of our country and today. One of the particularly impactful moments of my visit was going into the Emmett Till Memorial space. I didn’t have enough time last time to visit it but this time I did. The minimalistic room features the original coffin Till was buried in and in depth description of his life and events that led to his senseless murder. While my mother and I were in the room, we were standing near a black man and his son probably around 8. The father was explaining to the boy what happened to Till and I was captivated by this private moment between a father and his son. The tenderness with which the father explained the situation and how confused the son seemed by the situation will stick with me. It raises really important insights about how important recognizing individuals like Till is and how questions about how convoluted education about such events must have been in the past. The collision of historical (and present) injustices, now memorialized in a space that allows for validation, explanation, and consideration is a powerful thing. I can remember similar experiences going to museums and learning about movements that affected me in a powerful way, such as the suffrage movement. 

I highly, highly recommend going to the museum if you can. It’s a really powerful place and I am grateful for the opportunity to learn so much. Museums are super important (especially FREE ones #equality) because they promote shared histories, public recognition, and respect to those that came before.