18 Quotes by Lonnie Bunch

We want to remember that America is at its best when it’s struggling to live up to its stated ideals.

My first task for tomorrow is to stop smiling.

He recognized this was an important niche, but I would also argue that he saw himself as contributing to the uplift of African Americans and contributing to a changing America.

Going past the '70s and '80s there was a great reliance on the celebrity, the movie star and the person who sold a million records. People would argue that Ebony didn't become the journal to discuss substantive and thorny issues.

That support allows me to reach out and do the work we need to do.

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.

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.

There must be appropriate tension between stories of real pain, loss and tragedy with those of resiliency, optimism and hope, ... It must give those of the culture a real sense of legitimacy and possibility, but also be a museum that is a lens into what it means to be an American, with a message that all of us are shaped indelibly by this African-American experience.

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?