I visited the new African American museum in DC today .... fantastic.

Last edited Sat Oct 15, 2016, 08:22 PM - Edit history (1)

The National Museum of African American History and Culture.

It has been open for about 3 weeks, is so popular that one has to get timed tickets, though it is free, as all national museums in DC are.

I went with my wife, daughter, and mother-in-law. Full disclosure: I am white, they are black. This is only relevant because I will not experience in the same personal way that they will.

and I was very moved by the experience.

First off, the museum goers were roughly 95% black, 5% white. It was crowded, but the entire crowd was mellow, relaxed, and positive, and polite to each other, despite the horror of history that they were looking at. The museum is extremely well put together, and architecturally wonderful on the inside. Though some of the spaces are not large, each display is thoughtful and well put together.
Short films at various points in the museum give an overview of an era and tie things together.

The two coolest things:
1) The interactive lunch counter. In the civil rights area, a replica of the department store lunch counters where sit-ins occurred in the early 60s, with touch screens implanted in these counters.

more in a moment ....

edit to add, as I had to put my daughter to bed ....

I don't remember what my second coolest thing was, except the totality of the experience. The staff of the museum was fantastically helpful, the people visiting were wonderful and considerate, as my mother in law was in a wheel chair, the museum is high tech and multimedia everywhere ...

And there is a cafeteria food court area where different places offer different African American regional cooking styles, very gourmet and overpriced like all Smithsonian food courts. It reminded me of airports only in the level of security entering the museum and the prices of food.

The other great thing: The museum offers serious history, and fun culture sections. The major takeaway for me: people were waiting patiently in line for 45 minutes to see their own serious history. There was no wait in the culture section.