Tell The Truth, Shame The Devil, Though This Devil Has No Shame

Dr. Lonnie Bunch, the outgoing Secretary of the Smithsonian, had a few parting words for the president and those of his ilk who think that even talking about enslavement is somehow unpatriotic.

Speaking Friday at the 10th anniversary celebration of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the museum he built from scratch as its founding director, Bunch argued that slavery is “foundational” to understanding the United States. The crowd of hundreds rose to give him a standing ovation.

“When people say you talk too much about slavery or that they’re embarrassed by slavery, I wish I was as strong as my enslaved ancestor. I wish I could believe in America that they believed. I wish that I could dream a world anew that they dreamed,” Bunch said, according to the Guardian.

Consider that a direct reply to President Trump, who griped on Truth Social last year that the Smithsonian was out of control and that it was fixated on how bad slavery was.

“You cannot understand the greatness of a country without understanding the totality of a country,” Bunch said on Friday. “You cannot understand all without illuminating the dark corners. Curating means let’s shine the light. Let’s tell the truth.”

As NewsOne reported, Bunch announced this month that he will retire at the end of the year after 38 years at the Smithsonian. Bunch told the New York Times that the job had become “stressful.” Small wonder. 

In March 2025, Trump signed an executive order: “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” accusing the Smithsonian of promoting a “divisive, race-centered ideology.” In July, the White House Domestic Policy Council released a 162-page report accusing the National Museum of American History of “extreme political activism,” and the White House considered posting warning labels at the museum’s entrances. Then, days before Bunch’s announcement, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and White House aide Vince Haley sent the Smithsonian’s Board of Regents a letter threatening to pull federal support under current leadership.

Bunch, the first historian and first African American to lead the Smithsonian, told CBS Sunday Morning‘s Mo Rocca that the museum’s mission is to give America a full picture of itself. On Friday, he called the notion that Smithsonian staff don’t love their country “unbelievably wrong.”

He told moderator Laura Coates that on the days he felt beaten up, he would visit Emmett Till’s casket and remind himself that he could persevere. Board member Shonda Rhimes pledged $1 million to a new legacy fund in Bunch’s honor.

His closing promise: the museum “will stand as long as there’s an America.”

Amen.

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