Smithsonian Secretary:
Museums Bring Us Closer
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By LIBBY CUDMORE • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com
COOPERSTOWN – One afternoon, while walking through the Smithsonian’s exhibit of Emmett Till’s glass-topped casket, Secretary Lonnie Bunch III saw a young African-American woman sitting on a bench, sobbing.
“I was about to go over to her, but a white man approached her and said, ‘I’m crying too. Can we cry together?’ And they hugged. That’s what museums can do. Museums can help us come together, share our pain and take sustenance.”
Bunch, the first the first African American and first historian to serve as head of the Smithsonian, gave a Zoom presentation on “A Vision for Museums” to the Cooperstown Graduate Program this morning.
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