5 important items to be exhibited

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September 22, 2016 1:33 PM

The National Museum of African American History and Culture, Washington DC will be open on Saturday, September 24, 2015.

Statue of Clara Brown, former slave

After a long journey of 13 years since the construction was authorised, this Smithsonian museum finally opens this weekend.

The musuem is dedicated to black history in America. The museum will tell black history from the time of slave trade, through emancipation, the civil rights movement and the present time plagued with police brutality.

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Here are five of the uncountable historically significant items to be displayed.

1. Bucket used by Martin Luther King Jnr:

Martin Luther King, the Baptist reverend and Civil Rights leader is one of the most important figures in Black History.

This is the bucket he soaked his feet in after his historic five-day march from five-day protest march from Selma to Montgomery, Ala in 1965.

2. Statue of Thomas Jefferson and the slaves he owned:

Thomas Jefferson was on of the U.S founding fathers, he authored the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson is the second elected Vice President of the United States and the third elected President of the country.

He was also a slave owner who was considered benevolent by the standards of his time. He died in debt and his slaves were auctioned off upon his death.

This statues shows bricks with the names of people he owned.

3. Althea Gibson's racket:

This phenomenal black woman made history in sports. She is the first African-American woman to ever win a Wimbledon tennis championship.

Althea Gibson was inducted into Gibson into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1971.

4. Segregated train car:

The museum will also display a train car from the Southern Railway.

The train shows the different and segregated accommodations allocated to white and black passengers — who were charged same fare.

5. Harriet Tubman's shawl:

Harriet Tubman was former slave who had escaped and helped others gain freedom through the Underground Railroad.

Queen Victoria gave her this shawl in recognition of her work in the late 1800s. Tubman has also been voted the first woman whose face would appear on a dollar bill.

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