Lincoln once said that America was founded on a proposition that was written by Jefferson in 1776. We are really founded on an argument about what that proposition means.

Ordinary British soldiers harbored several strange preconceptions of their own. Some were surprised that the colonists wore clothes, thinking they would dress like Indians. Other had expected to encounter roving bands of wild animals in the manner of African jungles. And when a loyalist came aboard one ship to help it into port, the British crew and troops were dumbfounded. "All the People had been of the Opinion," they exclaimed, "that the inhabitants of America were black.

Herbert Hoover versus Al Smith in 1928 was one of the dirtiest elections in American history.

Cheney refers to his vice presidency... as one of the most consequential vice presidencies in American history. And it clearly was.

Black history is American history.

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.