‘Don’t I deserve a little grace?’: Lonnie Bunch on pressure from Trump and leaving the Smithsonian on his own terms
The man who shepherded the creation of the National Museum for African American History and Culture discusses his tenure and interference from the White House “For the last two years, everything has implied getting rid of me,” Lonnie Bunch III, the Smithsonian Institution’s secretary, said on Thursday. Following an unremitting pressure campaign from Donald Trump and his administration, Bunch, the founding director of the National Museum for African American History and Culture (NMAAHC), announced his retirement on 9 September. Bunch insisted, however, that the pressure “was not part of my calculus”, and that his decision to step down was driven by having completed his personal checklist of goals: “First of all, I promised I’d stay a secretary for five years; It’s been eight.” Furthermore, he said that he realized that he wanted to stay through the country’s semiquincentennial celebrations and for the 10th anniversary of the NMAAHC, a museum for which he led the creation. Continue reading...
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