S. 3953 — African American History Act of 2026

This section defines terms for purposes of the Act, including "(1) African American history," as the history of African Americans from the African diaspora through the present day, encompassing slavery, abolition, reconstruction, civil rights, and contributions to U.S. society; "(2) African American history education program," as an educational program on African American life, art, history, and culture using digital, electronic, and interactive technologies and carried out in collaboration with elementary, secondary, and postsecondary schools; "(3) Director," as the Director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture; and "(4) early childhood education program, elementary school, local educational agency, and secondary school," as defined in section 8101 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965.

This section authorizes the Director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture to use funds appropriated under section 6 for specified activities promoting understanding of African American history, including (1) developing 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 a social justice and anti-bias lens; (4) creating and disseminating scholarly work through research, curricula, exhibitions, publications, and programming; (5) providing language translation of museum works and activities; (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 educational agencies and leaders for curriculum adoption; 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, as well as distribution of information about funded activities and responses to related inquiries. The section permits continuation of any such ongoing activities as of the date of enactment.

This section directs 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 six months after initial funding distribution and annually thereafter. These requirements sunset on September 30, 2030.

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