As interpreters and educators of history and culture, museums and museum professionals have borne witness and recorded our nation’s reckoning with issues of racial inequities in the past year. The trial and conviction of Derek Chauvin is a monumental case in US history signaling a change in our nation’s understanding of racial inequities caused by a history rooted in racism.

While there is some accountability in this case, the recent killings of Daunte Wright and Adam Toledo make it clear there is still an incredible amount of work to be done.

We commend the many organizations, community organizers, and groups of advocates and protestors on the ground–particularly the Floyd family–for their work in the fight for justice. Their work highlights the importance of mobilizing large, multi-racial groups to make substantive change. AAM is committed to learning from their perspectives, stories, action, and determination as we try to work towards a practice of anti-racism and racial equity within our own organization. Museums have the power to contribute to a more equitable and just nation by educating their communities, fostering empathy, lifting up previously untold stories, and reforming their own organizations.

We affirm today, and every day, that Black Lives Matter.