President Barack Obama heralded the opening of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, an institution dedicated to the many threads of black suffering and triumph.
The first black president of the United States cut the ribbon to inaugurate the striking 37,000-square-meter bronze-clad edifice before thousands of spectators gathered in the nation’s capital to witness the historic opening.

The Smithsonian’s 19th and latest addition to its sprawling museum and research complex is the first national museum tasked with documenting the uncomfortable truths of the country’s systematic oppression of black people, while also honoring the integral role of African-American culture.

Guests of honor on stage included four generations of a black family called the Bonners, led by 99-year-old great-grandmother Ruth, the daughter of a slave who went on to graduate from medical school. After Obama declared the museum “open to the world,” it was she – stooped in stature but smiling broadly – who tugged on a rope to ring an antique bell from an historic black church, sealing the inauguration.

There is also an exhibition focusing on the fight against segregation, which discusses the era from end of Reconstruction through the Civil Rights Movement. A separate section examines the Civil Rights Movement, the Black Power era of the 1960s and 1970s and other activism remembering many activists, including Dr Martin Luther King.

The museum holds more than 3,000 artifacts — with many contributed from ordinary Americans from across the country. There are also tens of thousands of other artifacts which have been contributed which could be rotated later into exhibition space.

There are also many iconic items celebrating the achievements in sports, music, television and film including Michael Jackson’s fedora hat worn during his 1984 “Victory Tour,” boxer Muhammad Ali’s headgear, musician Chuck Berry’s Cadillac and baseball star Jackie Robinson’s bat. One exhibit also honours the legacy of Obama’s election.