Council and Scholarly Advisory Committee of the National Museum of African American History and Culture
The National Museum of African American History and Culture was established Dec. 19, 2003, when President George W. Bush signed into law legislation establishing the museum as part of the Smithsonian Institution.
The legislation (available at http://nmaahc.si.edu/) also established a Council for the National Museum of African American History and Culture to advise the Smithsonian Regents on museum issues, including recommendations on the planning, design and construction of the museum; the administration of the museum; and acquisition of objects for the museum’s collections.
Museum Council
The 24 members of the Council include leaders from business, academia and the arts; Smithsonian Secretary Wayne Clough; and Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.), a representative of the Board of Regents.
The members of the Council (in alphabetical order) are:
- Richard D. Parsons, co-chair of the Council and chairman, Citigroup
- Linda Johnson Rice, co-chair of the Council and CEO of Johnson Publishing Company Inc. (publisher of Ebony and Jet magazines)
- Laura W. Bush, former First Lady of the United States of America
- James Ireland Cash, retired professor and senior associate dean of Harvard Business School Publishing
- Kenneth I. Chenault, chairman and CEO of American Express Co.
- Ann M. Fudge, retired chairman and CEO of Young & Rubicam Inc.
- James A. Johnson, vice chairman of Perseus LLC
- Robert L. Johnson, founder and chairman of RLJ Companies and founder of Black Entertainment Television Inc.
- Quincy D. Jones, CEO of Quincy Jones Productions Inc.
- Ann Dibble Jordan, executive committee member, National Symphony Orchestra
- Michael L. Lomax, president and CEO, United Negro College Fund
- Brian T. Moynihan, CEO, Bank of America
- Homer Alfred Neal, director, University of Michigan Atlas Project and professor of physics
- E. Stanley O’Neal, former chairman and CEO of Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc.
- Samuel J. Palmisano, chairman and CEO of IBM Corp.
- Gen. Colin L. Powell, former U.S. Secretary of State
- Franklin D. Raines, former chairman and CEO of Fannie Mae
- Ruth J. Simmons, president, Brown University
- Gregg W. Steinhafel, chair, CEO and president of Target
- H. Patrick Swygert, president emeritus of Howard University
- Anthony Welters, executive vice president of United Health Group
- Oprah Winfrey, chairman of Harpo Inc.
Scholarly Advisory Committee
With noted historian John Hope Franklin (1915-2009) as its founding chairman beginning in 2005, the museum created a scholarly advisory committee to help shape its intellectual agenda, exhibition content and programming.
The members of the committee are:
- Michael Blakey, professor of archaeology, College of William & Mary
- Taylor Branch, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of America in the King Years, a three-volume study of the civil rights movement
- Johnnetta B. Cole, director, Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art
- Drew S. Days III, professor of law, Yale University
- Deborah L. Mack, independent museum and academic consultant and curator
- Alfred Moss, professor of African American, U.S. social and U.S. religious history, University of Maryland
- Richard J. Powell, professor of art history, Duke University
- Clement A. Price, professor of history, Rutgers University
- Bernice Johnson Reagon, professor emeritus of history, American University, curator emeritus, Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History
- Alvia J. Wardlaw, director/curator of the University Museum at Texas Southern University, curator of contemporary and modern art, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
- Deborah Willis, chair, Photography and Imaging and African Studies, Tisch School of the Arts, New York University
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SI-73-2012
Fleur Paysour
202-633-4761