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01:18:2213 sec.
Obama, Barack - President

Thank you. (Applause.) Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Please, have a seat. Thank you very much. Well, good morning, everybody.

01:18:351 sec.
AUDIENCE, -

Good morning.

01:18:3627 sec.
Obama, Barack - President

I want to thank France for that introduction and for her leadership at the Smithsonian. I want to thank everybody who helped to make this day happen....

01:19:0321 sec.
Obama, Barack - President

I am so proud of Lonnie Bunch, who came here from Chicago, I want to point out. (Laughter and applause.) I remember having a conversation with him...

01:19:243 sec.
Obama, Barack - President

I promise to do my part by being brief.

01:19:2740 sec.
Obama, Barack - President

As others have mentioned, this day has been a long time coming. The idea for a museum dedicated to African Americans was first put forward by black...

01:20:0747 sec.
Obama, Barack - President

It’s also fitting that this museum has found a home on the National Mall. As has been mentioned, it was on this ground long ago that lives were once...

01:20:5443 sec.
Obama, Barack - President

This museum will celebrate that history. Because just as the memories of our earliest days have been confined to dusty letters and faded pictures,...

01:21:3734 sec.
Obama, Barack - President

Just like the Air and Space Museum challenges us to set our sights higher, or the Natural History Museum encourages us to look closer, or the Holocaust...

01:22:1125 sec.
Obama, Barack - President

And that’s why, in moments like this, I think about Malia and Sasha. I think about my daughters and I think about your children, the millions of...

01:22:3629 sec.
Obama, Barack - President

When our children look at Harriet Tubman Shaw or Nat Turner's bible or the plane flown by Tuskegee Airmen, I don’t want them to be seen as figures...

01:23:0534 sec.
Obama, Barack - President

I want my daughters to see the shackles that bound slaves on their voyage across the ocean and the shards of glass that flew from the 16th Street Baptist...

01:23:3946 sec.
Obama, Barack - President

When future generations hear these songs of pain and progress and struggle and sacrifice, I hope they will not think of them as somehow separate from...

01:24:2513 min.
Obama, Barack - President

May we remember their stories. May we live up to their example. Thank you, God bless you, and God bless the United States of America. (Applause.)

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