African American Museum to Be on Mall

The National Museum of African American History and Culture will be built on the National Mall near the Washington Monument, the Smithsonian Institution said.

Smithsonian officials said the five-acre site would likely include a 350,000-square-foot building. That would be comparable in size to the institution’s National Museum of the American Indian, also located on the mall.

“It will tell the stories of African American culture from slavery through civil rights,” said Lonnie G. Bunch, the museum’s director.

The black history museum “is in the mainstream of American history, and this site is in the mainstream of the other museums,” said Walter E. Massey, a Smithsonian board member.