Smithsonian museum could get funds for African American history lessons

The bill allows the Director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture to use federal funds to create and share resources about African American history. These resources can include digital and print materials, traveling exhibits, and scholarly work like research, curricula, and publications. The goal is to make accurate, accessible information about African American life, art, history, and culture easier for schools and the public to use. The Director may support teacher training, workshops, and fellowships to help educators teach African American history.

The museum can work with early childhood programs, elementary and secondary schools, and local school districts. The Director may also work with state and local education leaders to encourage them to use these resources in their curricula across different subjects. The bill lets the museum use a “social justice and anti-bias” lens in its programs, public events, and online engagement. It supports building the museum’s capacity, including more staff, conservation, digitization, and translation of materials into other languages.

It also allows the museum to create and test new, evidence-based ideas for improving museum programs and to expand or repeat those that work. The bill authorizes the Director to build and maintain web content for educators, students, and families on the museum’s website, and to answer questions about the funded activities. It also permits using the funds to continue any similar activities that the museum is already doing when the bill becomes law. The Director must submit a public report to Congress each year explaining how the funds were used to create and promote educational activities and carry out the act.

The Director must also brief specific House and Senate committees within six months of the first funding and then once a year. These reporting and briefing requirements end after September 30, 2030. The bill authorizes $4 million for fiscal year 2027 and for each of the next four fiscal years to carry out these activities. The bill also states a “sense of Congress” that accurate education about the history of minority groups in the United States, viewed through a social justice and anti-bias lens, is important.

It says the directors of current and future Smithsonian museums focused on Native Americans, women, Latinos, and other minority groups should be able to develop and share educational materials in their areas of expertise, though it does not give them new legal powers in this bill.