The National Museum of African American History and Culture is not a place that traffics in improper ideology. It is a museum that recognizes that America has been suffused with improper ideologies for most of its history: ideologies that ignore the centrality of slavery to the nation’s founding.

In a 2010 interview he described a “stultifying” meeting in which suggestions for saving newspapers included publishing more photos of pets. “I thought, ‘It’s been two hours and journalism hasn’t been mentioned,’” he said.