Conversations in Context
Conversations in Context
- 11:27
S1 • E1
Movements
Dometi Pongo talks with Secretary of the Smithsonian Institute Lonnie G. Bunch III about Black college students' sit-in protests at a Woolworth lunch counter in Greensboro, NC, in 1960.08/04/2020 - 10:04
S1 • E2
Marches
Dometi Pongo talks with Lonnie G. Bunch III about the 1917 Silent Parade, one of the first mass civil rights protests in the U.S., the powerful message it sent and the foundation it laid.08/04/2020 - 13:38
S1 • E3
Music
Dometi Pongo talks with Lonnie G. Bunch III about the role music plays as a form of protest and empowerment for African Americans, and draws parallels between the blues and hip hop.08/04/2020 - 09:54
S1 • E4
Media
Nearly 60 years after the Freedom Riders protest, Dometi Pongo sits down with historian Lonnie G. Bunch III to discuss the importance of documenting social movements then and now.08/11/2020 - 12:22
S1 • E5
Memory
Dometi Pongo and Lonnie G. Bunch III talk about the importance of remembering the past, including slavery and the civil rights struggle, in order to see a truer picture of American history.08/17/2020
Cast
Dometi Pongo
Dometi Pongo is the host of the MTV series "True Life Crime" and "Need to Know," an MTV News Twitter and Instagram show providing context for the day's pop culture news. Dometi previously served as a reporter and fill-in host for Chicago's WGN Radio and as voiceover talent for WGN-TV. The award-winning journalist also works as a speaker and multimedia consultant through his firm Pongo Strategy Group, which helps organizations tell better stories through multimedia. In partnership with Sankofa Ventures, Dometi's annual group tours of Ghana, West Africa, provide opportunities for the African diaspora to explore their ancestral lineage.
Lonnie G. Bunch III
Lonnie G. Bunch III is the 14th Secretary of the Smithsonian. As secretary, he oversees 19 museums, 21 libraries, the National Zoo, numerous research centers, and several education units and centers.
A widely published author, Bunch has written on topics ranging from the black military experience, the American presidency and all-black towns in the American West to diversity in museum management and the impact of funding and politics on American museums. His most recent book, "A Fool’s Errand: Creating the National Museum of African American History and Culture in the Age of Bush, Obama, and Trump," chronicles the making of the museum that would become one of the most popular destinations in Washington. In service to the historical and cultural community, Bunch has served on the advisory boards of the American Association of Museums and the American Association for State and Local History.
Among his many awards, Bunch was appointed by President George W. Bush to the Committee for the Preservation of the White House in 2002 and reappointed by President Barack Obama in 2010. In 2019, he was awarded the Freedom Medal, one of the Four Freedom Awards from the Roosevelt Institute, for his contribution to American culture as a historian and storyteller; the W.E.B. Du Bois Medal from the Hutchins Center at Harvard University; and the National Equal Justice Award from the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund.
A widely published author, Bunch has written on topics ranging from the black military experience, the American presidency and all-black towns in the American West to diversity in museum management and the impact of funding and politics on American museums. His most recent book, "A Fool’s Errand: Creating the National Museum of African American History and Culture in the Age of Bush, Obama, and Trump," chronicles the making of the museum that would become one of the most popular destinations in Washington. In service to the historical and cultural community, Bunch has served on the advisory boards of the American Association of Museums and the American Association for State and Local History.
Among his many awards, Bunch was appointed by President George W. Bush to the Committee for the Preservation of the White House in 2002 and reappointed by President Barack Obama in 2010. In 2019, he was awarded the Freedom Medal, one of the Four Freedom Awards from the Roosevelt Institute, for his contribution to American culture as a historian and storyteller; the W.E.B. Du Bois Medal from the Hutchins Center at Harvard University; and the National Equal Justice Award from the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund.