Museum leaders, visitors react after noose found at Smithsonian’s NMAAHC (ABC7)
The National Museum of African American History and Culture is a place to learn and overcome hate.
“This is a day that has shown us that this museum is more important than ever,” said museum Deputy Director Kinshasha Holman Conwill.
On Wednesday afternoon, museum officials discovered a noose in the segregation exhibit, which is on one of the lower levels, below the lobby.
Lori Nzekwe and her 6-year-old daughters saw the blocked off area where Park Police were investigating.
“It’s shocking that in 2017 we still have this type of bigotry,” said Nzekwe who was visiting from Tampa, Florida.
On May 26, a noose was also spotted on a tree outside the Hirschhorn Museum. Investigators have still not figured out who is behind either incident.
The nooses are reminders of the pain African Americans have endured.
The museum tweeted about one painful tragedy even before the noose was found.
Museum officials said that nearly 100 years ago to the day on May 31, 1921, white mobs burned more than 1,000 properties and murdered scores African Americans in Tulsa Oklahoma.
The Tulsa Race Riot started because a black man was falsely accused of assaulting a white woman.
The museum also reminds Americans about resilience—whether it is following a race riot or a racist act like the nooses.
“At the end of the day hate does not win and that history is our best teacher in terms of how we move forward in being the best country that we can be,” said Holman Conwill.