National Museum of African American History and Culture
Exterior of the museum July 20, 2016
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 Location in Washington, D.C.
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| Established | December 19, 2003; opened September 24, 2016 |
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| Location | Washington D.C., United States |
| Coordinates | 38°53′28″N 77°01′57″W / 38.891°N 77.0326°W |
| Type | History museum |
| Collections | African-American history, art, music |
| Collection size | 33,000 (approximate) |
| Director | Lonnie Bunch |
| Curator | Jacquelyn Serwer |
| Architect | Freelon Group/Adjaye Associates/Davis Brody Bond |
| Public transit access | Federal Triangle station (Blue, Orange, Silver lines) |
| Website | nmaahc.si.edu |
The National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) is a Smithsonian Institution museum established in December 2003. The museum's building, designed by David Adjaye, is on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.. It has close to 37,000 objects in its collection related to such subjects as community, family, the visual and performing arts, religion, civil rights, slavery, and segregation.
Early efforts to establish a federally owned museum featuring African-American history and culture can be traced to 1915, although the modern push for such an organization did not begin until the 1970s. After years of little success, a much more serious legislative push began in 1988 that led to authorization of the museum in 2003. A site was selected in 2006. The museum opened September 24, 2016, in a ceremony led by U.S. President Barack Obama.
The concept of a national museum dedicated to African-American history and culture can be traced back to the second decade of the 20th century. In 1915, African-American veterans of the Union Army met at the Nineteenth Street Baptist Church in Washington, D.C., for a reunion and parade. Frustrated with the racial discrimination they still faced, the veterans formed a committee to build a memorial to various African-American achievements. Their efforts paid off in 1929, when President Herbert Hoover appointed Mary Church Terrell, Mary McLeod Bethune, and 10 others to a commission charged with building a "National Memorial Building" showcasing African-American achievements in the arts and sciences. But Congress did not back the project, and private fundraising also failed. Although proposals for an African-American history and culture museum would be floated in Congress for the next 40 years, none gained more than minimal support.
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