>> irq in a program is 10 years old. we are showing you conversations over that time. here's one from july 2006. >> this week on q&a, our guest is lonnie bunch. the director at the national museum of african history and culture. lonnie bunch, how do you define your job? >> my job is to make a dream of many people a reality. my job is to craft a national museum that takes a subject that many people care about, but also

a subject that illuminates the american experience. it in a way that is worthy of the smithsonian and worthy of the culture i'm trying to explore. >> what would it be called? >> been natural museum of african-american history and culture. i'll figure out a shorter name. was legislation introduced by john lewis and sarah, they came up with the name. a decade ago it would have been a debate. is african-american? black american? is it just history? is it just culture? let's make it an inclusive museum. , favoriteur personal thing about the african-american culture? >> the optimism and the humor. what i want to do when i create a museum is i always struck at

getting at that point where you were not old enough to sit with a old men who it's in the backyard and hear stories, that you would sneak in and here. i would love the stores of watching jackie robinson play at what it was like to north new jersey. then they would just laugh. sadnesser the story -- trivial -- a sense of optimism and belief that all things are possible. >> what is your favorite ring of african-american history? >> i think what excites me the most is really the slavery. i'm fascinated with how african americans dealt with an institution that could have destroyed them. family,ey came out with

humanity, and humor intact. are their slaves in your past? >> yes. both sides of my family are slaves mainly from north carolina. i never spent much time looking at that. my father sister died. i father was thinking about his own family. we did some work. we started looking. relativesou find your really moved me in a way i could barely describe. >> what was your phd dissertation about. >> i wrote about black leadership. i was interested in who are the leaders of the black community? especially the free black community. -- were there others at the local level? >> what did you find? >> that was most exciting to me. >> was there character you remember?

>> yes. >> a man named james. in thea free black man 1830's and 1840's. this guy had made it. he made money because of his inventiveness. he was well respected i the white community. yet he said it is not enough. i have got to help others make it. he led the negro convention movement. getting blacks together throughout the north to find ways to fight oppression. someone like that i had always admired. this is not about me. it is about the greater good. withre supposed to come up new information. a new angle. what was your new angle? where did you find it? >> leadership in different ways. recognizing there were leaders we don't know anything about.

they had local issues that shape their leadership. it taught me a lot about what politicians know. you have got to take care of your base first. >> what part where you born in? >> north new jersey. my mother was born in north carolina. a small town. i father's family -- my father's family is outside a raleigh. i went to the farm in north carolina for that wonderful cultural shock what happens when a northern city, suburban kid comes down to the south. it was a great experience. i learned a lot about jim crow segregation. me to goteresting for into the south to see the kind of colored white signs that were there. it was interesting to see how my cousins reacted. -- ie from the sense of

remember my cousins talking. we have got to live in this town. talk -- it taught me compromise and how to survive. >> what kind of kid were you? >> the kid who loved the new yankees. i was a kid that really wanted to understand why some people hated people just because of the color of their skin. i grew up in a town that was predominantly non-african-american. i would have people who were great friends. people who are enemies -- i couldn't understand why. part of my interest came from trying to understand why. why someone hated because my skin was darker and there's. i couldn't get answers from talking to my friends or parents eirs.rker then th

i couldn't get answers from talking to my friends or parents. >> your birth year was what? >> 1952. >> and what town? >> north new jersey. >> what environment? >> predominately italian. my dad was a dentist. he moved about a house. the town grew up around him. by the time i grew up, it was publicly 75% italian. the rest irish and us. it was a kind of place where you learned to fight and run. in order to survive. [laughter] >> what did you find out about prejudice? .t is not just black and white it is italian and irish. >> that's right. i found out how strong it was. even if people didn't have the rationale for it -- i remember

confronting people here and why don't you want me playing in your backyard? they had no answer. they believed they were doing right. they were protecting their own. the other thing i learned was how much it hurt. >> what did you do about it? >> i tried ways to confront it. i've learned i was a good athlete. athlete, thatgood opened some doors. kids would pick you on the team because you could play well. all my entire life i could remember that first day of going around to play baseball with the kids and no one would pick me. once i started playing and it , and suddenly they picked me. by the time and got to high school, i was the pack can -- i was the captain who would do the picking. beemembered what it would like to be waiting for someone to choose you because they had

an assumption of who you were not based on anything other than their own prejudice. >> where did you get your phd? >> i did all my work at american university. i started out in howard university and came here to go to howard. transfers to american university and did my undergraduate at america. >> will pull do over there? >> several. roger brown was a colonial and historian. who was a 19th-century historian. what brought over was a woman named dorothy. she was a historian who had written much, i remember asking her about history. i was so impressed. she spent two hours talking about books, what i liked to read. i went to go someplace that when cares about what i want to read and not what they want me to read. >> why were you attracted to

them? >> one is an embarrassing reason. when you are 19, that is a consideration. second, i really wanted to make sure i understood all of american history. i realized that african-american history was american history. i wanted to know it all. >> how did you afford to go to american? >> my parents were both teachers. they worked very hard. that you areu know going to continue with your education, we will be supportive of it. i was very lucky. i was in this italian neighborhood. kids would come and sit on the front porch. they would talk about they can't wait to get out of high school. can't wait to join the service. a conversation -- after you finish graduate school, what are you going to

do. the assumption was that you had to go to college. more than likely, you were going to go to graduate school. >> are they still alive? >> both are 80 and living in new jersey. >> what did they teach? a special man. someone who wanted to be a scientist. went to school. got a chemistry degree. came out after the army. one is to be a chemist. i guess a 1950, it was hard to be black and a chemist. he said, i could teach chemistry. he basically taught science and chemistry for 35 years in a small town outside north new jersey. my mother loved little kids and taught third grade for 40 years p i grew up in a household valuing education -- 440 years. i grew up in a household valuing

education. teachers.respecting it was helpful to me. never except something because summit and authority says it, but respect what they ring to the table and how to -- respect what they bring to the table and how they treat you. this job -- the man who is supposed to build african american -- '05.came in july of >> a year ago. >> a year ago. and before that, the chicago historical society. >> i left the smithsonian right after working on a show on the american presidency in 2000. moment is your proudest at the chicago historical society? >> there are so many.

it was the oldest institution. there are many people in many communities who didn't see that as a place they cared about. i remember working on it exhibition on the first african-american mayor. we thought a lot about how do you create an exhibition that brings people together. it was a very divided election. happened was we were able to get other people to say this is an important story. suddenly were able to bring the and it became a moment for the city of chicago to reflect and remember and put aside some of those pains. the other was working on the group that i care most about. creating a major project called team chicago.

how to getroject of kids engaged with history. historicaljob at the society. i took my daughters to the museum. they were probably 18 and 13. they said, what is this? there is nothing in this for us here and we are teenagers? we took teenagers from throughout the city and taught them how to do histories. i want to do a project on what it was like to be a teenager in chicago. they went around the city and interviewed hundreds of people. the oldest in their 90's and the youngest in their 20's. what these kids came back with is an understanding that issues of identity, authority, issues they are wrestling with just like the 90-year-old. one was a tennis player in her 90's. she played tennis in her 20's.

she went out to practice tennis. when to came home, her father had come home early. he starts parading her because ating her front of the neighborhood because she had shorts on. this notion of being able to help kids see how important history is has really been something that is one of the most important things i did at the chicago historical society. >> what did you do with all of those histories? >> it is new information for historians and scholars. he also turned into a major exhibition. it won the award of the best exhibit in america in 2004. >> what is the best thing about chicago? >> the best thing is how chicago has such a sense of history. this is the city that cares about its tradition, it's past. whether you are the head of the

largest thank or the guy selling hotdogs. they care about those traditions. i love the way it people embrace you. people became dear friends of mine. just said, if you care about the city and you want to work hard, we want to work with you. that ifad said to me the smithsonian ever called i would hesitate, no way. this is my place. i love chicago so much it was hard for me to leave. my family is moving as we speak. i have been commuting for a year . the fact we're cutting that court is painful. in onward been so with a city. never been -- never been so in with a city.

he thought it was too important for me to stay. is a budget for the chicago historical society? >> about $15 million. a staff of about 125. 200,000 square feet of building space. ?> the job before that >> ultimately as an associate director in charge of all the curators. the job of a lifetime. the opportunity to work in a museum that really holds in its hands america's culture. i was so happy i couldn't believe it. had the opportunity to tell everyone's story, as well as stories of celebration.

work there, iay i was the luckiest guy in the world. >> how long were you there? >> 12 or 13 years. >> american present exhibit, was that your baby? >> it was my baby. >> what year did you start planning? [laughter] >> normally you take three or four years to do an exhibition. the american presidency was an saidition that larry small you haveing, you know, a wonderful exhibition on the first ladies. nothing on the presidents. about doing something on the presidency? we should look into it. wouldn't it the wonderful -- be wonderful if we had a major exhibition opened in time for the presidential election of november? we don't normally do that. can you? me ring inat, let

the best people i can find, we could pull it off. for me, this was an opportunity to work with people i admired and really cut through so much of the bureaucracy. we were able to open up a major exhibition i was ripe for scholarship -- that was right for scholarship. it was in part because of the skill of the people. the wonderful collections. we open the drawer. there's lewis and clark's compass. take that museum and draw from the work of generations of cu rators. >> where did you get jefferson's desk? >> it had been elected earlier. .e only put out periodically

we realized this was something we ought to have people see every day. i shouldn't be the only one who could go to the storage room and see it. the american public should be able to see and. let's -- see it. let's find ways to make those icons accessible. part of the talents -- challenge folks know there works. you want to put lincoln's top hat out for a long time. how do we make it work? they were stellar coming together. you had an amazing time crunch. will work with you to make this happen. >> why is that often a reaction -- you cannot do that? >> in some ways part of the job

is to safeguard things. make sure things are done within a certain system. >> for what? [laughter] >> i think that was the question. we cannot say we are protecting it. we will protect it, but it will still be accessible. that helped change some of the culture that was in the museum. >> that desk was for what purpose? >> it was really his writing desk. discussion at least part of the declaration of independence written on it. this wonderful icon. beautiful to look at. when you interpret the kinds of ripple effects that occurred, our challenge was in that presidency show to take those uniform,bjects, the

the george washington wore, for example --war, for but make sure we told it in such a way it was part of a narrative. understand what it told us about who lincoln was. our memories of lincoln. why the smithsonian collected this is a gave us an opportunity to go deep and create what we hope was a rich experience. >> i have to admit one of the most interesting things for me is connected -- and it was strange -- there is a shirt with a hole in it. a white shirt with a hole in it. the bullet went through. exhibit -- myur memory says there was a glass case there and a speech there. >> that's right. >> most people don't know he was shot. >> that's right. >> where did you keep the

speech? to do the show. part of it was conceptualizing what should be in the show. we needed to do a section on assassination. some people thought it was too morbid. i think it is an important part to recognize what is at risk of being president. we wanted to talk about this whole process. we came to teddy roosevelt and found we had in the smithsonian collection and roosevelt library different pieces of that letter. basically his speech. the story goes the speech was long-winded. it was a long speech. folded up. it became a thick packet. when he was shot, the argument is that slow down the bullet that he was able to survive. he loved to tell the story.

he was shot, but insisted on finishing the speech. a wonderful story the symbolizes who teddy roosevelt thought he was. >> how many people would have worked on that exhibit? how long did it take? core team about 10 people. three scholars. people whoseveral worked on the collections. getting them out. figuring out how to preserve them. what do we have to do? who needs to be contacted? and we brought in exhibit designers. it is a very large exhibition. we couldn't do it in a linear way. take what pieces are able to be designed.

later. piece was ready probably when all is said and done 70 or 80 people who built exhibition. at various stages. >> 70 or 80 people. did they work for the smithsonian? >> someday it. we went outside -- some data. we went outside. -- some did. we went outside. can you build this? can you build this exhibition? the company said, let's do it. at least 70 people worked on it and brought pieces in and help to construct it. >> is that museum still open? >> i think they have begun the

process -- they are due to close in september of this year. , how much dido that exhibit's and who paid for it? >> this is embarrassing. i don't remember the exact costs. the secretary of the smithsonian said to me, get it done. i'll raise the money. that is what he did. >> there have been some controversies about the names on buildings and people gave lots of money. has given millions and millions of dollars. any help from the government? tothe way it is supposed work is legislatively congress has promised 50% of the construction costs. therefore that means i've got to raise at least 50% from the private sector.

we have been very fortunate. a wonderful group of people who are members of the council. they have all work toward getting 100% participation of the council to provide some initial money for us to move forward. they are going to be at the forefront of helping us find all the support we need. i had be honest -- part of what -- even though as my mother says i had to raise more money than god count, part of what gives me confidence is when i talk around amazedntry, i'm just so and humbled by the reaction of people all over. it is about time. this is something we care about. we want to support it.

when i talk to many people in the corporate community, they talk about how the marriage of african-american culture, the name,onian is a brand this is a way to make manifest so much of what they believe. issues of community. diversity. in some ways i recognize it is going to be hard to raise this money, but am optimistic because of the support we have. >> is everyone on the council african-american? >> now. -- no. the council is part of how i want the museum to be built. by a staff that is they burst. this not an african-american museum for african american -- i want a staff that is diverse. this is not in our american museum for african americans. i hope all americans to embrace this as their story.

>> is there a year you're willing to say this will be open? >> i'm willing to say i'm working to get this done in a decade. >> 2006. you are talking 2015? 2016? 2018? >> i will be 62. i want to get this thing up so i it'stime to make sure growing pains are behind it. it is on the path we want it to be. then i can go away and teach. we have had individuals and corporations and we have begun to work with some foundations. >> where would you say the money is at the moment? how much do you think you have pledged? >> at this stage it is hard to tell. we're going through a lot with

working with the foundations. michael would be to kick this off in a formal -- my goal would be to kick this off in a formal launch several years down the road. >> the opportunity to get in on the beginning of one of the most important institutions. the opportunity to help us preserve african-american culture because so much of that is still in people's home, in the attics, and at risk. people get very excited about that. but will do is we will offer full panoplyum a

of opportunities, whether it is naming opportunities within galleries or endowed curatorial posts. yes this is her museum. a lot of people find this as a way to honor their ancestors. morerah winfrey is worth than a billion dollars and bob johnson is worth more than a billion dollars, then time warner and american express, is merrill lynch one of them, lots of money. have any of them said as numbers of the council, you can count on me? let's all have said you can count on me for my support within this struggle and also my theort to help you find

greatest corporate support you can. i am optimistic about what we are going to get. >> why doesn't the federal government pay for the whole thing? isthe federal government encouraging public-private partnership. i think because of the unique nature of this museum, there is that opportunity to bring in a lot of nonfederal money. i think it's important that the federal government does step up and help this museum grow and help this museum people on time. i am comfortable with the notion of the public partnership. >> you have how many employees right now? >> i started with one, i am now at 15. >> where are you physically? >> i am in the office of the old museum of the american indian. >> and your budget will be how much?

>> i think my budget is roughly $3 million and each year we do on normal process of going to the hill. >> do you have to raise that? or do you go to the hill? >> it comes from the hill. answer to?ou >> i answer to dismiss on him and the board of regents. >> i know you had some foresight's you were looking at, tell us where the site is. has been given the honor of having a site on the mall. we are located near the museum of american history, under the shadow of the washington monument. the intersection of the 14th and 15th amendment. this is really one of the great locations. this allows us to do collaborative programming. capitalize on to

the people that will walk in the mall anyway. mallme ways, the national is an important symbol. some call it america's front yard, some call it the place of protest. this is the place where the average american or foreign visitor can come and really understand what america is all about. it is where you can go under the capital, where you can go into american history or the art museums, or the air and space museum, and get a sense of the wishes of american culture. being on the mall was the exact and that had to happen because this is a culture that is rich and vibrant and in essence, it is not only were the of the mall, you cannot understand who we are as americans without understanding that culture.

>> there is a counter and four chairs in the american history museum from greensboro that you are responsible for getting to the main museum. do you want to move that? >> i don't want to move it. ist of what i want to happen i want the american history museum to continue to talk about issues of race. tosome ways, what i want is have the public have the opportunities to go to different smithsonian into deeds and be able to see different lenses, different takes on this subject. in some small ways, some of the best civil war battlefields. civilou go to the best war battlefields, what you get a sense of, you get the story of that local battle.

>> what was that counter? >> the greensboro lunch counter. that was a counter that was the site of one of the most important citizens that really stimulated the whole city and movement in america. in february, 1960, 4 black students decided that they were going to go to war. were college kids, 18, 19, 20. what they did was that they sat in, they were arrested. because of the attention, this became a wonderful weapon. in notion of sitting down order to help your people stand up was very very powerful. >> where are those for today? >> three came back when we opened that exhibition. what was so powerful, there are a lot of reasons why i want to collect that counter.

one of the things that was powerful was the notion that young americans can help transform america. you are a that if teenager, you have an opportunity to own america better. that is what these kids did? >> how did you find this? .> it was amazing >> in what year? >> it was about the mid-90's. what happened was that one of my colleagues who work for me at american history called me and said, he was listening to the woolworth's was closing. he said, what do you think? i said, why don't we talk to the people down in greensboro. we went down in greensboro and we talked to the main headquarters in new york and we also had to talk to the local community because this was an

to me.ting appearance the first notion was that it is historically important. i don't know for we should done peopleuse we don't want -- july >> where was it? >> it was part of the lunch counter. that to makecked sure. we did a lot of work looking at old photographs, to almost try to find exactly the spot where these four students sat. what happened was when we went to woolworth's, we said, listen, of americatory perfected itself. of woolworth's as a company saying, that is wrong, but now we know is wrong. they said, then we will donate it if you can convince the local community.

at that point, they were interested in if this is a local story, should we have a museum? going into community meetings and talking about how this is an important local story. the greensboro sit in is a national story and it deserves to be on the national mall. andalked, and we work him the city says, that is a good idea, so they donated a piece to us and i remember when we did this sort of blessings elevation. the city of greensboro showed up, the mayor, and there was this great excitement. the people realized what the smithsonian does really well. smithsonianls, the miss the place to preserve your culture. it is also a place that legitimizes. if it is in the smithsonian, that becomes important at a local level. we really sent the message about

how important the civil rights movement is for civil rights museums. by the smithsonian collect enough, and made it legitimate for other institutions to collect those stories. >> there is the underground railroad museum in cincinnati, there is the civil rights museum , you ran onengham in california. by the way, what do you want to steal from the place that you used to work to bring out the big museum? you know you got your eye on something. >> what i know is that american history has a myriad of materials, whether it is materials on slavery or civil rights and my hope is that we will be able to work with them as they reopen and do their exhibitions, to use some that will help us as well. >> so diplomatic. out in california?

1983was in california from to 1989 when i came back to the smithsonian. this is one of those wonderful examples of where you don't know what you don't know, so the wete of california said, have a small african american museum but we are about to open a major facility, we need somebody to help build this. what they were getting ready for, the 1984 games. thee was great attention on city. i didn't realize what i did not know. i can block there and build a museum and do a major exhibition on blacks in the olympics. what it turned out to be was one of the most wonderful moments of my life. the day i said yes to the job, we found out my wife was pregnant. we went out to california and the smithsonian in some ways always taught me how to be a scholar.

how to be a curator. california really taught me both how to do the work of a museum am a how to work with committees, how to work with other scholars, but it also taught me because it was a state testify before budget hearings, how to analyze the other parts of the state who have no interest in what you're doing and it really helped me understand that part of what doing history is is yes, you have got to have the scholarly understanding, but you have got to understand where to get it done? >> where is this easy him? once it is in exhibition park. it is right in what they call the upper south central l.a., it africanalifornia american museum. >> it was the first 800 museum of african american history. it's probably maybe a budget of 7 million, probably an

exhibition space of maybe 30,000 square feet. >> what is your favorite thing? >> my favorite thing was a sign that was from a place called bruce's beach. bruce's beach was manhattan beach. this was the place where a black family actually built a summer home, so you can take the red line through los angeles and go off to bruce's beach and there are generations of african-american families talking about the joy of bruce's beach. this beach was closed when people said, too many african-americans coming into our town of manhattan beach. a sign that said bruce's beach, all are welcome. of all arenotion

welcome. i sent to the mall. but back to the american national museum, how many square feet will it have? >> right now, we have a space that can hold a very large building. what we are doing is working on the facilities programming document to figure out exactly how much temporary space,, permanent exhibition space, how big is the restaurant. remodeling it roughly on the size of the american indian museum. i want to make those determinations over the next year, we go through this process of really thinking carefully about what is his favorite legal -- what it is we really want. >> when will you start the construction? >> if i want to get this done in

less than the year, you are probably talking about at least three or four years before your opening date to getting a cash traction going. we have got a lot of work before we break ground, figuring out what is in the building, coming to some closure over the intellectual issues. what is this easy him, what is african america? there are a lot of intellectual issues we have to wrestle with. even as ourthat colleagues in the smithsonian help us, they're probably going to help us with 20% of what we need. findll have to go out and 80% of what we need. >> that powerful council you have, how many are on that? >> 19. >> have they said, this is what i want in that museum? >> what has been wonderful is no

one has said to me, i want x in the museum. what they have said is that this has to be a rich education experience for americans. this has to be something that recognizes the 21st century, so is role of technology something they pushed a great deal. notion thate shared, part of an us special is that it will be a national museum. strength might be the fact that we want to be a place that has real collaborations and partnerships outside. what we wanted being is kind of a deacon. that draws people to washington. thehat do you think of million man march? >> this occurred, and i remember i was out there with some of my

colleagues collecting. important moment. i want to make sure the smithsonian had materials that they could use whenever in the future they might want to explore that story. >> will you go to memphis to the civil rights museum there? and try to get some of that material? >> rather than go to other museums and take things, michael is to work with them to say, for example, we want to create this national save our american treasures. maybe help them give things to the civil rights museum and maybe a small percentage would come to us. we go into memphis and we bring our conservators. haveprobably would

problems allowing this to scan some images we haven't seen. we have maybe the signs from that marsh that says, i am a man. the memphis museum already has some of that. would not be, we don't want to be the big gorilla that comes into two different cities and says, that is ours, that is ours. we want to be a partner that thes these institutions do work they want to do. hopefullyat effort, they will see us as a place of value. >> maybe we can get you to fill in the blanks. museums and i see a very small percentage of african-americans. is it true from your experience and if so, why? >> a couple of things are important. the number of african-american presentations isn't as large as we would like it to be in the larger than it

has ever been before. they develop a strategy that work with this community to develop a long-term relationship. opportunities for them to take ownership throughout the life of the institution. we recognize the work we will have to do to encourage that audience. what i had been struck by is when you saying, here are the stories that resonate, if you have ever stood in a line at the national archives when people want to see the emancipation proclamation, suddenly you see a part of washington you don't normally see. for me, it is clear that there are millions of people that come to this museum because they will find ownership, they will see themselves. >> if you had the time, which you clearly don't, and wanted to

write a book about an african-american that you admire and there hasn't been enough written about them, who would it be? >> if i had a chance to write a book, i think i would really write about someone like a philip randolph. leaderp randolph was the black union.major he helped to change the civil rights movement, whether it was threatening a march on washington which encouraged president roosevelt to pass the executive order that led to the creation of the equal opportunity employment commission. he was also really the driving force behind the march on washington in 1963. what i love is this notion that nobody is given anything at the

banquet table of life. you get what you earn and you keep what you can protect. >> amity people know there is a statue of a philip randolph in union station? >> how many people know there is randolph ina philip union station? >> very few. i would like people to remember. remember not just martin luther king as the icon. allso want them to remember of the names that you and i could talk about and that nobody else knows. if this easy and does its job , we will have a whole generation of heroes, of people , people who people helped to make us who we are. who was the most interesting

president? >> martin van buren. the littleed magician. i love the fact that this guy came out of the rough and tumble politics of new york, ingratiated himself to andrew jackson, was able to overwhelm john c calhoun, got the vice presidential slot, became president. i love martin van buren because this guy recognized that despite what everybody told him, if you are strategic and smart, you could get would you wanted. >> where do you put lincoln? >> hyperlink in as the best president in america. i think the notion of lincoln as both a world leader, lincoln as somebody who began a creeping process of racial transformation , and lincoln as the martyr. in some ways, he is at the top of what i think. >> what is your wife's name?

.maria >> where did you meet her? >> at the smithsonian. she was an intern. our member she was traveling and this guy was asking me, have you seen the new intern? i saw this beautiful woman and i said, this is for me. >> what does she do? what she is the deputy head of education at the art institute. >> what will she do with the move? closely better find something. >> my daughter is at law school in loyola. to stay wonderful kid. loves school, love the whole process. my youngest will be going to the university of california. >> where? >> hanna-barbera.

-- santa barbara. read that you were sleeping nights in one of the cesium's? museums? of these if there were things that happened that should not have happened. we were under such a deadline. we had no wiggle room. we're going to bring treason. we had to install artifacts. to installgoing artifacts, they're going to mexico. -- we are going to bring trees in. >> you mentioned earlier you're

going to look for slight cabin somewhere. i did read a story about you going and looking at a slave cabin. 16you dream about 2015 or and the cesium opens, what personally do you want in their yourself? that really are resonating with people, a slave cabin. i want a car that the woman porters worked on. want a storefront church. i want a shotgun house. what i want is the voices of african americans in their and whether it is music or whether it is the words. in some ways, when you look at the words of the african-american community, that is where you find real power, real optimism, reel spirituality. i want people to feel that. >> who is your all-time favorite ors edition or singer

entertainer? rexam cook. -- >> sam cooke. >> we need to figure out of this will be engaging enough. our challenge is how are you both the traditional museum and how do you engage these new audiences? are looking to think about what we put in to make it work. >> how much of your own counsel will be part of the story? they are all successful. >> i haven't thought about that. clearly, if you are the story of meteor film, music, people like quincy jones. quite frankly, i haven't thought about it. >> your biggest obstacle. obstacle is both managing expectations, because

expectations are so great, and i keep the that staff focused so no one gets burned out. not as a marathon, sprint. what i have to do is create an environment of the people recognize, yes, we will make mistakes and we will have some really bad days but the goal is not to be discouraged. is toal for my staff recognize that ultimately why we are doing this is because there are people who have been forgotten. passion,o use that their stories, their commitment, as a way to remind us to keep going. >> thank you. >> so much.

[captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014] conversation is available online. among the interviews you will on thedna medford emancipation proclamation. usane on the black history of the white house. art in u.s. capitol. other q and and any a program, search our video library.

glen kessler on his biggest binoculars of 2014, given to politicians and political groups that he believes made the biggest false claims. >> democrats tend to get more upset at them because they have bought into the myth of the liberal media and they think that media is on their side. whereas republicans, they firmly leave in the myth of the liberal media -- they firmly believe in the mists of the liberal media. i kind of hope that over the .ast four years i have done enough back and forth, treated both parties with equal fervor that people have come to grudgingly say, ok, you're someone we can do business with.

pack, whichajority is affiliated with harry reid, they stopped in turning my questions midway through the because theyon felt they were not getting a fair shake for me. >> sunday night at eight eastern and pacific. new york congressman michael grimm pleading guilty to one count of tax evasion in a hearing in brooklyn court. he won reelection in november. this is from "new york daily news." down if hewould step was no longer able to serve relieving the impression he would quit congress if convicted. after the hearing, he spoke a note of defiance saying there was nothing to keep him from for filling his obligations as a