Obama says new black history museum tells story of America

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, who is seeking to shore up support among black voters, has stumbled over the name of the new Washington museum on African American history.

CCTV America’s Sean Callebs reports.

In an impassioned speech, President Barack Obama pointed out the highs and lows of being black in America, from slavery and Jim Crow segregation to voting rights and economic leaders. “We congratulate and honor those involved with the project and recognize today the incredible contributions of the African-American community to this nation”.

“But too often, wilful or not, we’ve chosen to gloss over or ignore entirely the experience of millions upon millions of others”.

“It doesn’t gauze up some bygone era or avoid uncomfortable truths”, Obama said in his weekly radio and internet address.

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama were also there, ringing a bell alongside a 99-year-old woman who is a descendant of slaves, to open the museum. The new museum is a “really attractive place”, Trump told thousands of supporters in Roanoke, Virginia, on Saturday.

Thousands are expected to gather on the National Mall on Saturday morning to watch Obama, the nation’s first black president, cut the ribbon to open the museum. The exterior tiles are inspired by 19th century ironwork created by slaves in the South, and allow sunlight into the museum through patterned openings.

George Bush while he was president signed the bill to begin construction in 2003.

Georgia Congressman John Lewis co-sponsored legislation authorizing the museum. “Black and white and Latino and Native American and Asian American – see how our stories are bound together”, he said standing on a stage outside the bronze-colored, latticed museum.

For more on African American Museum opening, CCTV America’s Susan Roberts spoke to Journalist Ray Baker.

The president’s remarks served as the finale to a program attended by several hundred guests, many of whom were donors in a remarkably long fundraising initiative, led by Lonnie G. Bunch III, the founding director of the NMAAHC. Millions of donors, known and unknown, contributed $315 million in private funds ahead of the opening.

Behind him, the 400,000-square-foot museum stood as a testament to that.

“It’s like walking across the desert and finally getting to a fountain of water to quench your thirst”, said Verna Eggleston, 61, of Brooklyn, who toured the museum.

The president’s remarks had a touch of nostalgia: he noted that while he, his wife and daughters have reveled in seeing the Mall from the vantage point of Marine One multiple times, “we don’t have many trips left”.