Lonnie Bunch III was born in Newark, New Jersey, in 1952. He grew up in Belleville, New Jersey, where they were the only African-American family in their neighborhood. His grandfather, a former sharecropper, moved into the area, as one of the first black dentists in the region, and Bunch's father and mother were school teachers. As a child, he experienced racism from white teenagers in his neighborhood.
Bunch credits his childhood experiences with local Italian immigrants and his reading of biographies as a youth as inspiring him to study history. Bunch wanted to give a voice to those who were "anonymous" or not written about. In 2011 Bunch reflected on the early exposures: “I was in junior high and we were reading biographies of historic figures. I remember one on Gen. ‘Mad’ Anthony Wayne, and one on Clara Barton and Dorothea Dix. I thought, ‘Were there no histories of black people?’ One day, I was going through my grandfather’s trunk and I found a book about black soldiers in the First World War. I devoured it.”
"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."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"It's important for this museum to have a good idea of the vision of others."
"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?"
"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,"
"[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."
America has benefitted from things that are horrific,’’ said Lonnie Bunch, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, who was also in Angola. But Bunch said true appreciation will only come from knowledge ... Bunch agreed.
“She has done a brilliant job of finding that story, making that story accessible and making us all realize how much we’re shaped by those earlier experiences,’’ said Lonnie Bunch, secretary of the ...
The Smithsonian’s Secretary Lonnie G ... “This project honors not just the children who learned here, but their courage to transcend the limitations set before them,” said Bunch, “a resilience that endures in the story of our nation.”.
The National Museum of the American Latino established by Congress in 2020 doesn’t have a building of its own yet. But it just unveiled something that helps establish its presence in the meantime ... Read more ... Lonnie Bunch was the current secretary.
In the run-up to Election Day, TCM is going after the movie lovers’ popular vote by showing 50 films over nine successive Fridays under the banner Making Change... The series runs Sept ... Dr ... I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang (1932) (Lonnie Bunch III - No.
Sign up for it here ... letter-writing ... The Smithsonian overall has invested dramatically in digital accessibility under the leadership of Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III, and letters, notes, and papers from the James BaldwinCollection are available online.
The Smithsonian’s dynamic leader is dredging up slave ships, fending off culture warriors in Congress, and building two new museums on the National Mall... .
The funds were provided in part by the Secretary of the Smithsonian, Lonnie G. Bunch III, and the Joseph L ... role women like Madison have played in the nation’s progress,” Bunch said in a statement.
Fox31 Denver
24 Jan 2025
Fox31 Denver
24 Jan 2025