NEWARK, NJ — Commencing a month-long celebration of Black history, the Newark Public Library hosted a virtual discussion event this weekend with Newark-native Lonnie G. Bunch III, is the 14th Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution and founding director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
The virtual discussion is one of multiple events the Newark library plans to host in upcoming weeks in honor of Black History Month. Saturday’s event with Bunch particularly addressed the importance of sharing 19th and early 20th-century Black history and culture with the public in museums and popular culture.
The renowned museum director was also joined by Salamishah Tillet, an author and associate director of the Clement Price Institute on Ethnicity, Culture and the Modern Experience. Throughout the duo’s conversation, they touched on topics such as growing up in Newark, understanding family history, finding the balance between struggle and progress, the Black Power and Black Lives Matter movements, and the role museums can serve towards telling the story of Black history.
As a resident of Newark and Belleville during his youth, Bunch explained that being raised in the Brick City sparked his initial interest in wanting to explore the subject of history
“Growing up in Newark and Belleville taught me when to run, when to fight and when to talk my way out of things,” Bunch said. “In some ways, being a child of the migration – a child of integration – what you realize is that there were people in Belleville who treated me wonderfully, but there were other people who treated me horribly.
“I wanted to use history to, first, understand how I was being treated and understand the history of my local community. Then, ultimately, history became my tool – my weapon to fight for social justice,” Bunch added.
The museum director also touched on fond memories he had of Newark growing up, going out with his father to buy hats, go to movie theaters and finding Black communities to draw from. He explained that the city’s culture and community represented a “reservoir of blackness we could dip into.”
“Newark was always the heart of our family,” he said.
Embarking on a career vested in history, Bunch said he recognized the potential museum institutions had to shape the story of African Americans in the country, which became a focus in his work with the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C.
“What museums do is create informal communities,” he said. “They suddenly pop up and people cross racial and ethnic lines, and revel in the talk around an artifact like a slave cabin or Harriet Tubman’s shawl.
“African American history needs to be centralized… it’s the quintessential American story. My career has been using museums as the space to do that…I really wanted to help people understand the centrality of history, and I think the creation of the [National] African American Museum – its success and position on the [National] Mall – really contributed to conversations about the importance of history,” he added.
Moving forward, Bunch explained that museums can not only help preserve and tell the story of African Americans but become resources to combat and address social issues as well.
“I see museums – with everything I’ve ever done – as a weapon for social justice,” he said.
The Newark Public Library’s next Black History Month event is scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 13 at 2 p.m. to discuss the Music of Black Power.
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