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Visiting The Smithsonian With Lonnie Bunch

Smithsonian Museum Secretary Lonnie Bunch is the first black person to lead the research, museum and education center.
Michael Hickey/Getty Images for Kentucky Center for African American Heritage and York Management
Smithsonian Museum Secretary Lonnie Bunch is the first black person to lead the research, museum and education center.

What’s it like to run 19 museums, 21 libraries and the National Zoo?

Lonnie Bunch knows the answer now that he’s in charge of the Smithsonian Institution. He previously served as the founding director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Bunch is the first black person and the first historian to head the organization. He told NPR that “it is crucially important for the Smithsonian to recognize it has an obligation to help America understand the fullness of itself, not just a portion of itself.”

We hear from him about what’s new and what’s next at the world’s largest museum and research center.

Produced by Haili Blassingame.

GUESTS

Lonnie Bunch, Secretary, the Smithsonian Institution, founding director, the National Museum of African American History and Culture.; @SmithsonianSec

For more, visit https://the1a.org.

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