The above is a picture of RQS standing in front of the Point of Pines Cabin at the National African American History Museum. Given America's history of treating Blacks as second class people, I feel that this museum is a "must visit" for all Americans.
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RQS set up the agenda for this trip. The schedule for our first full day in DC, Sunday, was a visit to the National African American History Museum, followed by a dinner "somewhere". There was an exhibit at the Arts and Industries Building we wanted to see yesterday, but we were too tired to see it when we arrived. This morning, we didn't bother waking up early enough to see this exhibit, and proceeded to walk the length of the mall to reach today's museum by 12:30 pm.
Upon entering the museum, we proceeded to the second floor and started viewing exhibits. Most of the exhibits on this floor focused on artifacts in the 20th century. This included women in professions such as midwifery, people in sports, and other artifacts related to the "black experience". It took us over 1 1/2 hours to make it through half of this floor before we decided to have lunch.
After lunch, we went to a larger exhibition (I think permanent) which took up 3 lower levels of the building. It showed how "Blackness" and "Whiteness" was not a big issue in Western society until European nations started to colonize the Americas and use Africans as slaves. (I'm not doing the exhibits justice. You'll have to see it for yourself.) From there, the exhibition showed how blacks were brought to the Americas, how they were treated once here, and how slavery affected American society - even after slavery was "abolished" in the United States. By the time 5:00 came around, we were exhausted, and we went back to the hotel to rest for a while.
Later that evening, it was time to eat, and we made it to U Street. Unfortunately, we selected an Ethiopian restaurant which once served good food with lousy service. This time, it was mediocre food with lousy service. Both of us wanted something sweet to eat afterwards, so we ended up walking a while before finding a Jeni's ice cream shop. And this was an unexpected blessing, as there was a line out the door. This meant we'd likely enjoy the ice cream we were about to have - which we did. It was a nice way to end a great day....
