Across That Bridge: Life Lessons and a Vision for Change

by John Lewis

In the meantime, regardless of all these setbacks, in every session of Congress I persisted in introducing the legislation. I did this for over a decade with no results, still undaunted in my belief that this was the right thing to do, and on my watch I was determined to do my part to make it happen. We saw many new museums built on the mall: the African Art Museum, the Air and Space Museum, the Museum of the American Indian, and many more in this time. I hired a very enterprising legislative director, Tammy Boyd, who began working on every angle to get the bill through. Finally, in 2001, I introduced a bill authorizing the National Museum of African American History and Culture, in conjunction with Rep. J. C. Watts of Oklahoma on the House side. Sens. Max Cleland of Georgia and Sam Brownback of Kansas agreed to introduce the same bill on the Senate side. The bill provided $15 million for planning and operations and $10 million for educational programs. The bill was finally passed by Congress. A presidential commission was formed to study the contentious issues regarding site placement. I had introduced the same bill in Congress for fifteen years; Rep. Leland had done his part in the years before me; and the entire effort had begun eighty-eight years before. But the bill was finally signed into law in 2003. The National Museum of African American History and Culture will be built on the National Mall, scheduled to be completed in 2015, a full 100 years after the idea was f...