Ten years after its doors first opened on the National Mall, the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture is throwing itself a four-day birthday party. From September 24 through September 27, 2026, the museum is hosting a slate of events, performances and community gatherings it's calling The Reunion, marking a decade since President Barack Obama dedicated the building in 2016.
The anniversary comes as the museum has grown into one of the most visited institutions on the Mall, and staff say the milestone carries weight beyond a single building. According to WTOP, Derek Simms, the museum's associate director of advancement, said the anniversary will be an opportunity to reflect on a journey that began more than a century ago. Simms noted the museum is expected to welcome its 14 millionth visitor soon, and that it now counts more than 74,000 supporting households, with memberships available for as little as $25 a year — giving it, per Simms, the largest number of members of any Smithsonian institution.
A Century in the Making
The museum's origin story stretches back long before ground was ever broken. Per Simms, African American Civil War veterans petitioned in 1915 for a memorial on the National Mall recognizing their contributions, an effort that took decades to bear fruit. Rep. John Lewis wrote legislation that eventually became the museum in the 1980s, according to Simms, and reintroduced that legislation for 15 consecutive years before President George W. Bush signed it into law in 2003, formally creating the institution.
Donnette Cooper, who became involved with the museum shortly after that 2003 signing, said she joined during its planning stage — years before the building itself existed. Cooper said the museum has touched many people and highlighted African American contributions and history, a sentiment that echoes the museum's long road from congressional authorization to its September 24, 2016 opening on the Mall.
Programming Built Around 'The Reunion'
The anniversary weekend kicks off September 25 with Understanding America: 10 Years of Excellence, a program featuring founding director Lonnie G. Bunch III in conversation with moderator Laura Coates. The event requires free advance registration and has limited seating. That same day, Sweet Home Café will mark the anniversary with a special menu curated by executive chef Ramin Coles, available through September 27 before the café debuts a yearlong 10th-anniversary menu with seasonal offerings starting September 28.
On September 26, the celebration moves to The Wharf for the Purple Ball: Echoes of the Pearl, a fundraising gala hosted by comedian Bill Bellamy featuring Grammy-winning artist and producer Jermaine Dupri & Friends alongside DJ D-Nice. Registration is required, and proceeds will support the museum's exhibitions, programs and educational initiatives. The Wharf location carries its own historical resonance: the 10th-anniversary events there specifically commemorate the 1848 Pearl incident, in which 77 freedom seekers boarded a schooner at the site in one of the largest recorded escape attempts by enslaved people in American history, according to the Smithsonian NMAAHC.
A Free Community Send-Off
The weekend closes September 27 with Violet Vibes: A Community Celebration, also at The Wharf, offering daylong programming celebrating the museum's first decade. Admission is free but space is limited, and registration information will be released in September. Derek Simms said the museum's community made its success possible, a theme that runs through all four days of programming.
A Building Born From the Last Open Space on the Mall
The museum occupies a five-acre site on Constitution Avenue between 14th and 15th streets NW, next to the Washington Monument, on what was widely recognized as the final remaining vacant parcel on the historic National Mall, according to Architectural Record. The 400,000-square-foot, LEED Gold-certified building was designed by the Freelon Adjaye Bond/SmithGroup collaboration, with a three-tiered corona exterior inspired by West African Yoruban caryatid columns and wrapped in bronze-colored aluminum panels referencing historical Black ironwork from Charleston and New Orleans, per Perkins&Will. The roughly $500 million project was built through a public-private funding structure by joint-venture contractors Clark Construction, Smoot Construction and H.J. Russell & Company.
At the 2016 grand opening, Obama dedicated the facility by ringing the Freedom Bell from Williamsburg's Historic First Baptist Church, one of the oldest Black congregations in the country, founded in 1776, according to History.com. The museum's collection has grown enormously since then: by late 2025 it held more than 45,000 artifacts after adding over 700 new objects that year, with staff digitizing more than 21,000 records and transcribing over 25,000 pages of historical materials, per the Washington Informer. By its ninth anniversary last September, the museum had hosted more than 24,000 student groups and averaged nearly 300 educational programs a year, drawing roughly 1.6 million in-person visitors annually alongside millions more online.
The 10th-anniversary celebrations arrive as part of a yearlong series of events intersecting with national preparations for the country's 250th anniversary, positioning Black history as central to the broader American story being told across the capital this year. The milestone also follows a leadership shift at the top of the institution: in March 2025, Shanita Brackett, the museum's associate director of operations, stepped in as acting director after Director Kevin Young took a personal leave of absence.
