18 Quotes by Lonnie Bunch

It is too soon to think about breaking ground. The next step is design considerations. But we are looking forward to that day.

The North was not heaven, but it was free of the most obvious violence stemming from racism. Blacks were allowed to vote and this gave them opportunities to build black banks and business communities and this contributed to opportunities for education.

Ebony and Jet increased the visibility of blacks and said that there is a diversity of experience in the black community. Not everyone is poor, and there are celebrities.

It's important for this museum to have a good idea of the vision of others.

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,

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.

In some ways, this museum in Washington gets to do something very important, ... It can be a lens to help us all better understand what it means to be an American--to use African-American culture as that lens to understand the history of this country as well.

I have rarely experienced a city that is so enamored with its history. Chicagoans revel in their history.

I can still remember the first time I was ever in Jet or Ebony, and suddenly all my mother's sisters said, 'I guess you are doing OK.' It didn't matter that I was in the New York Times or other papers.