- When you walk into the National Museum
of African American History and Culture,
you encounter over 500 years of African American history
from before the transatlantic slave trade,
all the way into the second election of Barack Obama.
The founding documents of our nation
are built on principles of freedom
and independence and equality for men.
But they were written during a time
when African American people were in bondage.
Some of the framers of the Constitution
were slave owners themselves.
I think that as a nation,
we're still grappling with the legacy of race
that started with the enslavement
of Black people in this country.
This museum is important because I think
we need places for people to understand the history,
how we are a nation that needs to deal
with our periods of racial violence,
periods of insecurity for African Americans.
So when you're seeing all these events happening,
police brutality,
discriminatory events that you're hearing about,
do you understand the foundations of that history?
Do you understand what it's rooted in?
This museum will always be in the role of sort of looking
at what is happening and collecting
around that to help people understand.
[gentle harp music]
Craft is an essential part of African American experience
because it really is a way of African Americans
making a way out of no way.
Your ability to make something out of your own hands
that is functional and useful for your family
is really important.
You see a quilt created by Jessie B. Telfair
from Parrott, Georgia.
She was fired from her job because she registered to vote
during the civil rights period.
She made these quilts as sort of an expression of her anger,
but also her insistence that she wanted
to live in a place that was free.