'A Fool's Errand' by Lonnie G. Bunch III., a crowning success

Three weeks ago, while my wife was undergoing a mammogram examination at Mt. Sinai, I took a stroll down the Museum Mile and visited the Cooper Hewitt Museum.

- By HERB BOYD Special to the AmNews

In the museum's shop I spied Lonnie Bunch’s “A Fool’s Errand” on the bookshelf. After I purchased it, I was told it was the last copy. Since then, the book has been part of my collection begging for attention. Now that the Smithsonian Institution, where Lonnie is the first African American to serve as its head, is threatened with closure by the Trump administration, I felt it was time to finish reading it and see how it anticipated some of today’s tumult coming from Washington.

The book is essentially about a success story, the realization of a dream Lonnie had after re-reading Albion Tourgee’s 1879 novel “A Fool's Errand.” Lonnie said that he saw “the journey to build a museum that could help bridge” the nation’s divide. After many frustrating years, working at several museums and earning his degree in history, Lonnie began thinking again about a national museum to house and exhibit the artifacts and stories of African American history. What he envisioned was very much like the one Dr. Charles Wright conceived in Detroit where his remarkable museum began as a trailer in the back of a building.