This is too important to fail, because it is holding a nation's--holding a people's--culture in my hands, ... My litmus test will be, Would my ancestors be happy?

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.

It will tell the stories of African-American culture from slavery through civil rights.

There will be stories in here of great pain, great tragedy, great brutality, ... because you can't run away from that because those are instructive.

[Organizers say they hope the exhibit will bring the unvarnished reality of the bus boycott home to viewers.] In some ways, we've romanticized the civil rights movement, ... We often forget just how strong the walls of segregation were, just how close to the surface racial hatred was. This wasn't simply a walk in the park.

I want to talk to the elders within the African American community. I want to get their sense, and their blessing, and an artifact or two,