David i got to meet someone who was building the africanamerican museum, and he was a gifted museum director. He started with nothing and made it into one of the most popular museums in the entire country. I am so proud of lonnie burch. We could not be more proud of the work he has done. David a vacancy they belong to be the secretary of the smithsonian. I was a chair of the search committee, and we looked at many candidates across the country. It was clear he knew the smithsonian, he was committed to the smithsonian, his wife was with the smithsonian, so it was an easy choice. Museum, and lonnie bunch is the 14th secretary of the smithsonian air you were the first africanamerican and the first historian. Lonnie that is right. David i was the chairman of the smithsonian at one point. Im still on the board, but i will ask tough questions anyway. Lonnie i appreciate that. David is the job as good as you thought it would be and are you happy you would have it . Lonnie no one knew what it was like to lead during a pandemic. But what has happened as a result of that, i learned the wonders of the smithsonian when it comes together. It is a collaboration of museums and research centers. It doesnt always blend. Because of the pandemic, people have come together across lines, scientists,tivity, historians, educators. So i am glad, because i get to see what the smithsonian does even the most difficult of times when it comes together and brings its creativity to bear. David what did you do in terms of operating the zoo and the Research Institutions and your 19 museums . Lonnie once we shut down the buildings, that i needed the building to still be operating. We went to everything online. We created operation educational opportunities, portals to get science, history and art. We made it so scholars can do the research, scientists do the work they need to do. But we recognized as a result of this virus we have got to rethink so much about the smithsonian. We have got to think about how we work more effectively. Once people come back, what does social distancing mean in a museum. The major thing that happens is people who dont know each other come together around an artifact like the shuttle, so will people want to come together in a time of pandemic . How do we create Community Even with social distancing . David the smithsonian is not yet open, you have two parts of it why did you open these first . Lonnie i wanted to figure out how do we open the rest . The zoo is outdoors, so that was easier. This museum, because it is large and has parking. There were issues of transportation. These were the test cases which if the virus begins to come down , to allow us to open the rest of the smithsonian. David where did you operate from . Lonnie because there were some guards that had to work, i thought i would go into the office. But if i did, other people would come in. I ended up working from home and ended up learning to master zoom and other technologies, working from home every day. David museums have been around for thousands of years but with zoom and virtual technologies, why do we need museums . Lonnie there is something harmful about the object. When you can see the Space Shuttle in front of you, it is powerful. You feel the connection. I have seen people stand in front of a copy of the emancipation proclamation or chuck berrys candy apple red cadillac. It stimulates conversation. What we should do is find the right tension between tradition and innovation. The traditional stuff is good and we want people to enjoy. We recognize as a result of the pandemic, more people are comfortable with receiving content digitally. We need to find the right balance between serving the millions that will never get to a museum and the millions that come to the smithsonian. David during the closing, we had race riots in washington and other countries around the country in the reaction to a death of a number of people like george floyd. How has the smithsonian reacted to that . Lonnie i thought it was important to realize that the smithsonian is what holds the nation together and it can bring people of different political points of view together. When all of the angst and the pain happened as a result of the murder of george floyd and others, we had a role to play, that we should be a place to help the public grapple with the things that divided us. We got support from bank of america and created a program that looks at race and community and our shaders shared future to say how do we create opportunities for people to come together to talk about what has divided us, how do we use the resources to give people the historical guidance to help them live their lives . David what about the diversity of the smithsonian workforce and your executives . Lonnie the smithsonian has a lot of work to do. I am pleased we have got diverse leadership. We have got strong Diverse People in many parts of the smithsonian but the smithsonian needs to do a better job. If we are going to help the public grapple with these issues, we have got to model it. David when there was the Lafayette Park riots, they said he was wandering around looking for artifacts he could take to the Smithsonian Lonnie . Lonnie curators cant break their habits. I was down at lafayette where talking to people lafayette ,quare talking to people collecting stuff for the smithsonian but saying here is stuff we should have. Around,ou are walking saying im the secretary of the smithsonian . Lonnie i had to show id. David what is the biggest challenge you have now other than getting ready for the opening . What is the biggest challenge . Lonnie to make sure the smithsonian has the Stable Funding it needs. Because of the pandemic we have lost millions of dollars. People are not going to restaurants and shops which has an impact on research and staff, so trying to make sure we have the strongest financial model. It means we have got to rethink some things. Rather than reopen our shops, we have got to build more ecommerce. This is allowing us to think creatively about what the smithsonian should be. I came to chicago and loved it and planned to stay there the rest of mica your my career when they gave me the call, would you like to help build the museum of African American history and culture . David there was no landdavid , no plan. Lonnie i wasnt sure how many nos there were. David lets talk about your background a moment. You grew up in new jersey in the garden state. And what did you want to be you were growing up . Lonnie i didnt know what the smithsonian was. I wanted to do something with history. I always loved history. The story that is true is my grandfather died the day before i turned five. He would read to me and read books one day he was reading a book that had a picture of schoolchildren and it was from the 1860s. He said to me that the picture said unidentified children. Then he said something i have never forgot. Isnt it a shame people could live their lives, diet and all it says is unidentified . It got me trying to figure out how do i understand their lives . I tried to imagine what were their jobs, were they happy, and it got me interested in history. The second step was growing up in the town i grew up in, there were very few africanamericans. I was the only one in my elementary school. There were people who treated me horribly and others who treated me wonderfully. I thought if i understood the history of the town, they would understand me. David when you were young, your father would drive you to the south, but you couldnt stop in many places. Lonnie we would drive from new jersey to north carolina. We would load the car up with food and blankets because we could not stop. He was the only driver. David there was no place lonnie to let black people stop. I remember he was falling asleep and he pulled off and into a motor court. He pulled in, my mother and brother were asleep, and i was watching him. He went out to smoke a cigarette and he was standing under a sign that said white only. I was terrified. I thought something is just going to happen. He finally comes back and recognizes i am worried and said something i have never forgotten. This is my america too, and it reminded me that the matter what happened, i wanted to make the country fair. David why did he bring you to the smithsonian . Lonnie when we used to go south, we would go past the museums and i was a civil war kid. I wanted desperately to stop. He would find an excuse not to stop. On the way back i remember taking out a map and saying 20 miles before we get to richmond or petersburg i would alert him. He would always keep going. Instead of driving to new jersey, he picked pulled into washington. He said here is a place where you can go learn about yourself in a museum and not worry about the color of your skin. So the smithsonian was a place of fairness area for a kid like me, is said here you can be who you want, learn all you want and not worry about the color of your skin. Being secretary was my way of thanking an institution that embraced me when few people did. Shery you came to american university, africanamerican male in the 1960s. Lonnie 1970s. David were there lots of Job Opportunities . Lonnie there were very few teaching jobs. At the end of my graduate career, i was broke, living on a teaching assistants salary. There was a returning student who said to me you should go down to the smithsonian because they have work and you can get a job. I remember saying who works at the smithsonian . It is where you take dates because it is free. Her husband was the head of science. He introduced me to the secretary. I didnt know who the secretary was. I will not get the job so i am afro. Ns, i have a big i sit very comfortable. We talk for 2. 5 hours, and he says we might want to hire you. I said i would not working at the museum of history and technology. He said we dont have any jobs there. Only the air and museum air and space museum. I said i am a 19th century historian. I dont know anything. He said how much money are you making now . He said he will make four times that if you work for me. I said i will become an air and space employee. That is how my career began, by luck. David you met your wife there. Lonnie i learned how to be a curator. I learned about the wonders of the smithsonian. So my whole life has been shaped in part by the smithsonian. David you were recruited a way to california for a museum. Lonnie i was the first curator of the california africanamerican museum, the first statefunded museum that explored issues of race. I went before the livex of 1984, so i did a major exhibition on the history of blacks in the olympics. It taught me how to be a scholar and a curator. David then he moved to chicago. Lonnie i was in American History for 12 years and wasnt going to leave. And io recruited me, wasnt planning on doing, but i had a meeting with the mayor and governor of illinois, and they said this is a city that has been tortured by race. If you could be the only africanamerican running one of our institutions, what an impact you could have. I came back to chicago and loved it and planned to stay there the rest of my career, when i got the call to think about the National Museum of African American history and culture. David there was a secretary who called you, larry small. He said build this museum, and you came back. You took the job, but why did you take it . There was no land, no plan. Lonnie i wasnt sure how many nos there were. I knew there was no plan and no site. I didnt know there were no isff area when i realized being an africanamerican running a major museum in chicago that nurtured my soul, i was really happy. I realized if i could help build this museum, we could nurture the souls of my ancestors and help america really grapple with race. David the Museum Opened before president obama left office, 2016. A very memorable summer ceremony. But you had to get an architect to build the building, to get a site, to raise the money lets go through that. How much did it cost to build museum . Million towas 550 build. We raised about 620 million to do that. Half of it was paid by the federal government and half of them by wonderful philanthropists and donors. David did you think you could raise that much when you started . Lonnie my mother said it is more money than god can count. I wasnt sure, but one of my strengths is to look at the big picture and put my head down and do the work. Slowly but surely, it began to work. You got the money from the congress and the private sector, then what are you going to put in the museum . Artifacts had no whatsoever. I thought, do we do it without artifacts . But it is the smithsonian. We needed to find the objects. I didnt know how to do it. One day i fell asleep in front of the television and woke up and antique roadshow was on. I had never heard of it. I said what a great idea. So called it saving africanamerican treasures and we took your readers from around frommithsonian curators around the smithsonian and helped to preserve the 19th century things and people ring stuff out and say, do you want this . We found Amazing Things i wasnt sure we could find. We collected over 40,000 artifacts, 4000 on display. Trunkse from basements, and addicts. Attics. David it is one of the few museums up until now where you dont, you cant just walk in because demand is so great. Did you expect demand to be that great . Lonnie i knew it would be popular, but it has become a pilgrimage site for many people, africanamericans and nonafricanamericans. We expected 4000 people a day. We were getting 8000 people. You had to have tickets. David every senator and congressman is calling you for tickets. Lonnie i am everybodys best friend. David president bush 43 signed the distillation to approve the museum and president obama said make sure it is open while i am in office. Lonnie the president says we have got to move a little quicker. Quicker. Shery as a result of covidshery , how has the organization had to pivot . Lonnie one thing is the best medical advice working with the cdc and others. I put together a team to look at what is the new normal, what does it mean when we reopen, there will be virus concerns . What does it mean we have to think about doing more digitally , that we have to protect our staff . When this hits, 93 of the staff went to telework. I have to think about how much work can we do that way . It is hard to think differently and we use this as an opportunity to ask fundamental questions about structure, the way we do business, so the goal is to come out better and stronger. David will people be required to wear masks . Lonnie everybody unless you have a medical issue. Our job, first and foremost, is to keep the staff safe and the visitors safe. David what lessons have you learned, and how will you change your life . Lonnie one of the big lessons is i have left my fingerprints on everything. I have good people working and i used to think i had to be there. I dont have to be there. I have learned more than anything else the fragility of human life and of fairness in this country. The pandemic, the dual pandemic of the virus and racism has inspired me more to struggle to help a country understand it self better and to find a country that is free and fair. This National Museum helps to tell a richer and fuller story of who we are. Our love for america. AfricanAmerican History is not somehow separate from our larger american story. It is not the underside of the american story, it is central to the american story. Toi want to give a shout out lonnie. It is important to understand this project would not and could not have happened without his drive, his energy and optimism. Back to opening day. You worked on this for how many years . Lonnie 11 years. David started with nothing, opens in september 2016 and who was there . Who. E it became a whos there was president and mrs. Bush, president and mrs. Obama, i was seated next to john lewis. The chief justice was there, senior people from the society smithsonian and in the audience, whos who, almost every political figure, so many people from entertainment and sports. I was moved by the people who wanted to participate in the program, Oprah Winfrey and will spread will smith and robert deniro. It was less than opening of a museum and more a celebration of a culture. David were you worried something would go wrong . Lonnie i was terrified i would mess up, that somebody would not enjoy them selves. I was terrified we wouldnt get the crowds i hoped. We got tens of thousands of people on the mall. It became an opportunity where i thought the best speech making i have ever heard. President bush gave a powerful speech about how a great nation confronts its history and doesnt run from it. President obama talked beautifully about what it meant to him and his family. Clearly the rate the late john lewis stole the show and talked about how this museum was the culmination of the Civil Rights Movement for him. This was really something he was proud of. I was so grateful to be able to help fulfill his dream. It was a special day. David president bush 43 assigned had signed the legislation. President obama said make sure it is open while i am in office. Lonnie he would say you have got to let me cut the ribbon. That was great. I would go to the constriction and sick i was construction people and say we have got to move quicker. David most people dont have a chance to do two great things in life. You built this museum, you deserve the lions share of the credit. Thedid you want to be smithsonian secretary, because as your mother would say, what do you need that for . You have the best office in washington, great view of the washington monument, why did you want this . Lonnie because you told me to. I realized i loved what i did and i knew that i had the best view, i could see everything. I took president obama through the museum, he came to my office and said you have a better view than i do. I said i worked 11 years. I realized i didnt need to accomplish anything, so i could give everything to the smithsonian. This was my opportunity to say, how do i bring more than 25 years of smithsonian experience helpe fore, and how do i the smithsonian rethink itself as a 21st Century Institution . David why do you regard this as an important job for you to do . Why do you care so much lonnie . Lonnie as an american, the smithsonian is this amazing treasure, a reservoir the public can dip into to not just understand the past but to have a better sense about who we are now and point us to a better future. It says you want to understand about space, we are here to do that. You want to understand history, we are able to help you do that. You want to see the creativity of pe