Lonnie G. Bunch III is Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. Previously he was founding director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Read here the entire interview in The Washington Post with Mr. Bunch.

You’ve said that culture can hold people together and that the Smithsonian is glue that holds the country together. Are you hopeful that it’s able to play that role even in this divisive moment? 

There’s no doubt that this is a partisan time. But you can’t be a historian of black America without being hopeful. Because this is a group of people who, in many ways, believed in a country that didn’t believe in them. So for me, there is always hope. There is always resilience. That also is what inspires me to always tell the unvarnished truth. And I would argue that in a partisan time what you need more than anything else is clarity based on scholarship, understanding and trying to find reconciliation and truth.

…What’s the most important advice you’ve gotten?

That the work you do shouldn't be about you. It should be about the greater good. It should help people understand themselves better. Also, I'll never forget, I was working on an exhibition and really wanted to understand slavery through the lens of a plantation. So I was in Georgetown, South Carolina, and [met] Princy Jenkins, this quiet man in his 90s who had been the caretaker for a long time. He began to tell me what it was like for his ancestors. He gave me advice that was so important. He said, "If you're a historian, your job is to help people understand not just what they want to remember, but what they need to remember."