Lead designer David Adjaye—the son of a Ghanaian diplomat—and lead architect Philip Freelon, together with their architectural team Freelon Adjaye Bond/SmithGroup, provided the building’s winning design.

The NMAAHC also remains one of the hottest tickets in Washington, with free, timed-entry passes obtained often weeks in advance online at www.nmaahc.si.edu. You can also try for same-day entry passes by going online early (6:30 PM), or by visiting the museum after 1:00 PM on a weekday.

I have already been twice—once with Saba Qamar, a former White House official in the Obama Administration, and then with Diane Jones, a longtime friend and former UNICEF executive and assistant to the wife of the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. With each visit, it is ever clearer that the United States of America’s story cannot be separated from that of African Americans.

Like many, I learnt in history class and through television and movies, of the tragedy of a people enslaved for centuries. From the 1500s to the end of the US Civil War, they were enslaved to first work the sugar fields in the Caribbean by Europeans, and then to work the agricultural fields in colonial America followed by cotton farms and plantations in the American South.

On the back of African Americans, a new nation’s wealth was built.

I spent hours going through the 12 permanent exhibition spaces that together tell a people’s story—from the depths of slavery to Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, to segregation, to the civil rights movement, and to the election of the first African-American president.

Earlier in Washington, I had visited the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery to see its commissioned portraits of the 44th US president Barack Obama and of First Lady Michelle Obama by African American artists Kehinda Wiley and Amy Sherald, respectively.

The remarkable new National Museum of African American History and Culture is about adversity. It is about diversity. And it is about an American history still being written.

It is also a celebration of African American culture, community, and contributions, from business to politics and religion, and from civil rights to sports, arts, and of course music—jazz, blues, Motown, and more.

I am moved by an exhibit featuring a dress that seamstress Rosa Parks was working on when she refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man in 1955. Another moving exhibit shows shards from a stained glass window from the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in September 1963 in Birmingham, Alabama, which killed four young African American schoolgirls.

These are just some of 37,000 objects in the museum’s collection.

Hanging overhead is a PT-13D Stearman Kadet training aircraft used by the Tuskegee Airmen—a group of African-American military pilots who fought for their nation in World War II even as they were forced to fight discrimination at home.

Music pioneer and “Father of Rock & Roll” Chuck Berry’s red Cadillac El Dorado is on display. So too are dresses from Whitney Houston and Dionne Warwick, the red Starfleet uniform worn by Nichelle Nichols as Lt. Uhura on Star Trek, and Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls jersey.

And the boxing gloves and training robe of “The Greatest” Muhammad Ali, as well as an Olympic torch from the 1996 Atlanta games, signed by the American legend and force for change. “I shook up the world!,” Ali once proclaimed, and that quote is now part of a favourite museum display of mine.

If you make it to the NMAAHC before the end of June, take time to see an entire exhibition on one of the most famous African Americans around: Oprah! The special exhibition, Watching Oprah, uses the story of Oprah Winfrey and her ground-breaking daytime television talk show as a lens through which to explore contemporary American history and culture.

As an African-American woman who founded her own media company and became a cultural icon known around the world, Winfrey—the exhibition vividly shows—“harnessed the power of the media to break down barriers, empower herself, and inspire others. ” The exhibition includes items from Harpo Studios in Chicago, home of The Oprah Winfrey Show, for more than 20 years, as well as numerous objects from Winfrey’s personal collection.

A journey through the museum in itself is symbolic. Descend down three floors via escalator and elevator to the Slavery and Freedom exhibition underground. Then work your way upward into the light and to a stunning Contemplative Court. This space for contemplation is a respite from the, at times, heart-wrenching history galleries and features a circular, cascading waterfall with quotes from notable African Americans inscribed on the walls.

There is so much food for thought and food for the soul for Americans and non-Americans alike at the NMAAHC. So don’t leave the museum without one last stop—for some sustenance for your stomach. Outside, food trucks and souvenir stands offer up quick meals and t-shirts. But inside, take a visit to the Sweet Home Café.

Managed as a joint venture by Thompson Hospitality and Restaurant Associates, with the celebrity chef Carla Hall as the culinary ambassador, the 400-seat restaurant showcases the rich culture and history of the African American people with traditional offerings as well as present-day food traditions in four food stations. Gulf shrimp and stone ground grits, as well as Louisiana catfish from the Creole Coast. Lexington-style BBQ pork sandwiches with pickled watermelon rind, and slow-cooked collards from the Agricultural South. “Smoking hot” Caribbean-style pepper pot from the Northern states. These are just some of the delicious offerings not to be missed. I order up some buttermilk fried chicken with waffles, while my friend Diane Jones tries the duck, andouille, and crawfish gumbo. And we are in agreement—delicious! This must be one of the best museum restaurants in town.

Then, it is back outside, our museum visit over. Our minds and bodies nourished. Cherry blossoms or not. Whatever the season, history is in full bloom at the NMAAHC.