New Smithsonian Institution leader Lonnie Bunch to N.U. grads: ‘Never, ever generalize based on race’

Lonnie Bunch, former head of the Chicago Historical Society and director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, gave the commencement address Friday at Northwestern University — four days after making history as the first African American to lead the Smithsonian Institution.

His grandparents were sharecroppers on the same plantation outside Raleigh, N.C., where his great- and great-great-grandparents had been slaves.

But last week, their great-grandson became the first African American secretary of the world-renowned Smithsonian Institution, chosen to oversee 19 of the world’s top museums.

That great-grandson, Lonnie Bunch, the former head of the Chicago Historical Society here, returned to his Chicago roots to give the commencement address at Northwestern University — four days after his historic installation as the Smithsonian’s 14th secretary.

“My maternal grandparents were sharecroppers. Their parents and grandparents were enslaved. For 27 years of their lives, they picked cotton, chopped peanuts and planted corn. But something inside them helped them realize that their lives were meant for much more, that their hands were more suited for something besides picking cotton,” Bunch said in his 15-minute talk before 10,000 gathered at Ryan Field to see 6,148 students graduate.

“It took them 11 years, but they graduated college,” Bunch, 66, said of his mother’s parents.

“They changed their lives, and they changed the trajectory of my entire family. My daughters have become the fourth generation of the Bunch family to graduate college because of the work of my grandparents,” said the founding director of the nearly 3-year-old, groundbreaking National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC).

Bunch, who with his June 16th appointment also became the first historian to lead Smithsonian — managing a portfolio that includes 11 of the world’s most famed museums on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. — is indeed an American story.

From his grandparents’ humble beginnings, his grandfather became one of the first African-American dentists in his region. Bunch’s own parents were schoolteachers.

Raised in Belleville, N.J., Bunch endured racism growing up in the mostly white community.

“Ultimately, your lives will require a nimbleness that your grandparents could never imagine. No one is an island. Sometimes the challenges will seem too great to bear,” he told the graduates, before sharing a poignant story of surviving a violent racial attack by a white mob, when he was 13.

“It’s an event that I’ve rarely talked about. I grew up in a town where there were very few African Americans, and one day, I was in a neighborhood that wasn’t my own, playing baseball. Suddenly, the game turned to attacking me. They attacked me with bats and rocks. I remember running, trying to get away from this mob,” Bunch recounted.

“I was exhausted, and I ran into the front yard of a house I didn’t know. I turned around and saw the mob coming, and I really thought this was the end of my life — at 13, to think this was the end of your life. Then a little blond girl came out of the house and said, ‘Get off my property.’ I thought she was talking to me. She was talking to the mob,” Bunch recalled.

“She saved my life. At that moment, I learned that help comes from unlikely places,” he said. “I learned about generosity of spirit, and I learned a lot about race. I will never forget what she did for me. I have never seen that woman ever again in my life, but that instant changed me. It helped me to understand why race matters, and it taught me to never, ever, ever generalize based on race.”

After graduating Belleville High, he attended Howard University, one of the historically black colleges and universities, later transferring to American University, where he earned his B.A. and M.A. in American and African American history, and got his first Smithsonian job at the National Air and Space Museum.

After college, he taught history at the University of Maryland, and became the first curator of the California African American Museum in ‘83. In ‘89 came the National Museum of American History. And in 2000, he moved to west suburban Oak Park to become president of the Chicago Historical Society, now called the Chicago History Museum, one of the nation’s oldest history museums.

It was in 2005 that he accepted the challenge of building NMAAHC, everything from its design and construction on the National Mall to raising money from high-profile donors like Oprah Winfrey, who gave $21 million and got an auditorium in the museum named after her.

Bunch has a book coming out in September, “A Fool’s Errand: Building a National Museum,” about his journey bringing the $540 million NMAAHC near the Washington Monument to fruition in 2016. It’s now one of the Smithsonian’s most popular sites.

“Trust me, your lives will unfold in dramatic and small ways you can never conceive,” Bunch, who married his college sweetheart and is father of two daughters, told the grads.

“I could never imagine I would have a career that would take me from Washington to Massachusetts, to Illinois, and back to Washington,” he said. “I could never imagine I could build a team to build a museum that uses African American culture as a lens to understand what it means to be an American.”

In appointing Bunch, Smithsonian Board of Regents Chair David Rubenstein cited his 29 years with the institution, his success building NMAAHC and the respect he enjoys among Smithsonian’s constituents and donor base, and members of Congress.

“I am still overwhelmed. I think they keep waiting for me to say I’m not going to take the job,” said Bunch, encouraging the graduates to go out and “find your own good fight.”

“I want you to always point yourselves in a direction where you can do good. I wish you a life of joy, a life of peace, a life of surprise, a life of important work and a life of wonder. Enjoy the ride.”