Page 9 - National UF Spring 2017

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Two days was not enough. While for now, I will leave you at the end of our historical Photo Credit: National Museum of
African American History and Culture
41journey through the Chronological Concourse, the incredible experience and emotion
(NMAAHC)
engendered there remained as we walked the upper three floors. We paused before

56leaving to look out of the openings to look back over the National Mall where we had

walked the day before. I imagined the feelings of the slaves that watched the land
disappear in the distance as they left their homeland and I embraced the irony that all
of the symbols of freedom we looked out on though those openings—the Washington
Monument, the World War II Memorial and the Lincoln Memorial at a distance
represented a freedom my ancestor had fought for in the service of the country but
had been so long denied.
I cannot wait to return to savor the richness of the exhibits and the breadth of
information that is there to be absorbed; to learn new insights and understanding and
to revisit the depth of the awakening embraced at each step through time; to rejoice in
the spotlight shined on the incredible contributions that our ancestors made to this
nation as both enslaved and free in the many years gone by to the current day.

The message of the Museum that we are an integral essential fiber woven deeply into A special thanks to Dr. Lucie
K. Lewis.for this story.
the fabric of our nation and inextricably tied to our ancestral past rejuvenates the spirit,

reinvigorates the obligation to honor those whose fight has brought us to today and

63drives a recommitment that their collective sacrifice to attain the promise cannot have

been spent in vain.