Pride of place: a new national museum will tell the story of centuries of African-American struggle and achievement.(FROM THE SECRETARY)( National Museum of African American History and Culture )

PROUDER than ever of her grandfather, who was a railroad porter in the 1920s, a woman from St. Louis recently wrote to the Smithsonian of her excitement about the site selected in January for the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC). "I can't get over the fact," she wrote to us, "that [my grandfather's] story will be told on the National Mall."

A Pullman porter's job was to look after the needs of exclusively white passengers in sleeping cars; most porters did it with dignity and pride, but the pay and working conditions were far beneath what they deserved. It was the determination and leadership of A. Philip Randolph that enabled the …