Lonnie Bunch III, who led the charge to build the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture and formerly served as the Chicago History Museum president, will step down from his post as the 14th secretary of the Smithsonian, he said in a statement Tuesday.
A historian by training, Bunch became the first Black person and first historian appointed to the position atop the Smithsonian — the world’s largest museum — in June 2019. His efforts to maintain the museum’s independence amid an internal review initiated by President Donald Trump’s administration “to assess tone, historical framing, and alignment with American ideals” put him at odds with the president.
Bunch said in the statement Tuesday that he leaves the Smithsonian with “pride and sadness, gratitude and joy, and with enormous confidence in the people who will carry this remarkable institution forward.” He plans to step down at the end of the year, The New York Times reported.
The secretary of the Smithsonian is responsible for 21 museums and 14 research centers.
Bunch, who ran the Chicago Historical Society (later renamed Chicago History Museum) from 2001 to 2005, was the driving force behind the creation of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History. The $540 million project, which began during the administration of George W. Bush, opened in 2016 during the tenure of President Barack Obama.
Bunch told the Chicago Sun-Times in 2016 that his political dealings in Chicago — including with former Mayor Richard M. Daley, former Gov. George Ryan, the leaders of the Illinois General Assembly and Chicago’s corporate community — taught him “the power of a marriage that includes the corporate community, the political community and the cultural community.”
The D.C. museum featured many Chicago artifacts, including a Pullman porter cap, a pew from the Quinn Chapel AME Church and furniture from the set of Oprah Winfrey’s show.
Bunch told WBEZ’s Reset in October 2019 that he wanted to steward a project that told many viewpoints.
“One of the things that was so important was to realize there wasn’t a single African American experience,” he said. “So we really tell stories through the lens of Chicago or Birmingham so that people get a sense that this is an amazingly complicated community. But maybe the most important thing we do is all of those stories are done in a way that said this is not a separate story about the Black experience. It is really using the African American experience as a lens to understand what it means to be an American.”
Museums, he told Reset, should not just be backward-looking.
“I really do think that if the museum is just about yesterday, then it fails,” he said. “But if it helps us think about yesterday, today and tomorrow, then it becomes a place that is valued and contributes in a way to making a country better.”
Last summer, the White House issued an executive order titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History” that initiated a review of the Smithsonian’s public-facing content, exhibition materials and curation process. The initial review focused on eight museums, including the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the National Museum of American History and the National Portrait Gallery.
The review, the White House said, was intended to “ensure alignment with Trump’s directive to celebrate American exceptionalism, remove divisive or partisan narratives, and restore confidence in our shared cultural institutions.”
A subsequent 162-page report by the Domestic Policy Council, issued in July, criticized the National Museum of American History and its director for “failing” to illuminate the nation’s heritage and displaying materials “intended to undermine faith in American institutions.”
In a memo, obtained by the Washington Post, Bunch defended the institution: “At the Smithsonian, our work is driven by scholarship, accuracy and an uncompromising commitment to tell the fullness of America’s story,” he wrote. “As public servants and the keepers of this institution, we are charged with helping a nation find understanding, hope and clarity and as part of that duty, we are dedicated to excellence, reflection and growth.”
Bunch told The New York Times it was not the pressure that had led to his resignation.
“It was really just saying, now’s the time.”