A BOLD MONUMENT TO THE BLACK EXPERIENCE

For its first 72 years as the nation’s capital, Washington, D.C., was a slave territory, and the five-acre tract on which the new National Museum of African American History and Culture sits once contained a slave market. So even before the ribbon was cut or the foundation laid, the building, which opens September 24, was already firmly rooted in the geography of America’s most inhumane and violent institution.

Yet instead of sadness, David Adjaye, the museum’s lead designer, saw celebration. He knew all about slavery, segregation, and lynchings,