H.R. 7740 — African American History Act of 2026

This section defines terms for purposes of the Act: (1) "African American history," meaning the history of African Americans from the African diaspora through the present, including slavery, abolition, reconstruction, civil rights movements, and contributions to U.S. society; (2) "African American history education program," meaning an educational program relating to African American life, art, history, and culture using digital, electronic, and interactive technologies and carried out in collaboration with elementary schools, secondary schools, and postsecondary schools; (3) "Director," meaning the Director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture; and (4) specified terms from the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (i.e., "early childhood education program," "elementary school," "local educational agency," and "secondary school").

This section authorizes the Director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture to use funds appropriated under section 5, at the Director's discretion, to carry out activities promoting understanding of African American history and culture. Such activities include (1) developing and making available resources such as digital, print, and traveling exhibitions; (2) convening experts and engaging the public through a social justice and anti-bias lens via programming, educational resources, and social media; (3) increasing resource capacity, technical support, and content creation through that lens; (4) creating and disseminating scholarly work via research, curricula, exhibitions, publications, and programming; (5) providing language translation of museum work; (6) expanding collection acquisition, access, staffing, conservation, processing, and digitization; (7) augmenting African American history education programs through pedagogy development, professional development (e.g., workshops, teacher trainings, fellowships), and engagement with schools and education leaders to integrate resources into curricula; and (8) developing, implementing, and evaluating innovations for museum improvement. The section further authorizes development and maintenance of online African American history education resources on the museum's website for educators, students, and families; distribution of information about funded activities; responses to related inquiries; and continuation of any such ongoing activities.

This section requires the Director to submit to Congress, and make publicly available, an annual report by February 1 describing the use of funds under this Act (1) to create and promote educational activities and (2) to otherwise carry out the Act. It also requires the Director or designee to brief the House Committee on House Administration and the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration on such programs and activities, beginning 6 months after the initial distribution of funds under this Act and annually thereafter. Both requirements sunset on September 30, 2030.

This section expresses the sense of Congress that (1) the federal government should lead initiatives to improve teaching of African American, Hispanic and Latino, Asian American and Pacific Islander, and Native American history through a social justice and anti-bias lens; (2) the Director of the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian should develop and disseminate historically accurate materials to improve teaching of Native American history; and (3) the directors of the forthcoming Smithsonian American Women's History Museum, Smithsonian National Museum of the American Latino, and any future Smithsonian museums covering minority group histories should create and disseminate quality educational materials in their areas of expertise.