Washington, D.C.–The Asian Pacific American community, joining a broad array of 85 organizations representing 47 different ethnic groups, has urged the U.S. Congress to support a bipartisan resolution calling for a commission to study the establishment of the National Museum of the American People.

Among the signers were organizations of Japanese Americans, Chinese Americans, Taiwanese Americans, and Korean Americans.

The letter was sent to over 100 individual members of Congress, including co-chairs of bipartisan House ethnic caucuses, members of the House Natural Resources Committee and members of House cultural caucuses. To date, 31 bipartisan Members of Congress have signed on as co-sponsors, including the co-chairs of 16 different ethnic Congressional caucuses. Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA) is the lead sponsor.

“The stories about peoples crossing oceans and continents to start new lives here are dramatic and compelling,” said Sam Eskenazi, director of the coalition coordinating the museum effort.

There are five possible sites for the museum on or near the National Mall in Washington. The museum will have a variety of components, including a national genealogical center, a center for the advanced studies of the American People, a film center, and a broad array of educational resources and programs.

Significant Contributions

“Every group of people has made significant contributions to our national heritage,” the letter stressed. “The museum, telling everyone’s migration and immigration story, will embody our original national motto: E Pluribus Unum – From Many, We Are One!”

The museum will tell its story in four chapters: 1) Prehistoric period–1607: The First Peoples Come; 2) 1607-1820: The Nation Takes Form; 3) 1820-1924: The Great In-Gathering; and 4) 1924-present: And Still They Come.

For all of the different groups, the museum will tell who they were, where they came from, when they came, why they left their homeland, how they got here, where they first settled, who was already here, what they encountered, where they moved after they arrived, how they became Americans, and how they transformed the nation.

Eskenazi said that the United States was built by peoples from every land, and they made this nation the world’s economic, military, scientific and cultural leader. The nation also serves as a beacon for people throughout the world seeking freedom and opportunity.

Visitors to the museum will be very high, predicted Eskenazi. “Everyone will want to come and learn about their own story and they will then learn everyone’s story. Foreign visitors will want to see how emigrants from their nations helped to make this nation.”

Great Nation

In an open letter to Congress, leaders of the 85 organizations, said: “All of our histories should be included in a national museum in Washington, D.C. which will tell the story of the making of the American People. We represent virtually every major ethnic and cultural group that has contributed to the making of this great nation.”

Signers of the letter include national leaders representing African Americans, Italian Americans, American Indians, German Americans, Scottish Americans, Polish Americans, Jewish Americans, Mexican Americans, Hispanic Americans and Portuguese Americans.

Other signers include groups representing Irish Americans, Arab Americans, Armenian Americans, Baltic Americans, Turkish Americans, Russian Americans, Dutch Americans, Scandinavian Americans, French Americans and representatives from over 20 other ethnic and cultural groups.

The groups emphasized that they are not seeking federal dollars to either fund the study commission or, in the future, to fund the planning, building or operation of this new cultural institution.