Lonnie Bunch Museum Quotations

It's important for this museum to have a good idea of the vision of others.

There must be appropriate tension between stories of real pain, loss and tragedy with those of resiliency, optimism and hope, ... It must give those of the culture a real sense of legitimacy and possibility, but also be a museum that is a lens into what it means to be an American, with a message that all of us are shaped indelibly by this African-American experience.

This is how to understand America. So having the Museum of African American History and Culture on the mall, surrounded by the other museums, will make African-American culture central to all Americans.

In some ways, this museum in Washington gets to do something very important, ... It can be a lens to help us all better understand what it means to be an American--to use African-American culture as that lens to understand the history of this country as well.