Norton to Speak at Museum of African American History to Kick Off Three-Day “Commemorate and Celebrate Freedom” Event, Tonight
WASHINGTON, D.C.—Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) will give remarks this evening, Monday, November 16, 2015, at the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture (Madison Dr. NW, between 14th and 15th Streets NW) at 5:30 p.m., to open the museum's "Commemorate and Celebrate Freedom" three-day event, which marks the completion of the museum's external construction. The event will pay tribute to three important anniversaries in African American history: ratification of the 13th amendment, which officially ended slavery (1865); passage of the Voting Rights Act (1965); and the end of the Civil War (1865). Norton was a leading cosponsor of the National Museum of African American History and Culture Act, which in 2003 authorized the creation of the National Museum of African American History and Culture. This evening's "Commemorate and Celebrate Freedom" event will kick off the countdown to the museum's grand opening in fall 2016 by bringing the museum to life for three nights, as the façade of the building will be illuminated with moving images in a spectacular display.
"We begin today the countdown to the grand opening of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, which we have worked for decades to bring to the District," Norton said. "Today, we celebrate African American history with a museum that will showcase it—and we will make a little history ourselves."