USA // To comprehend the diverse African  American experience and how it helped  shape the USA, there is no better museum  than this newest one in the Smithsonian's  array. Just entering the bronze-tiered  building, its design inspired by a Yoruban  crown, feels remarkable. Exhibits spread  over six main floors. The story begins in the  underground galleries with early accounts  of slavery and segregation. Walk around    and there's a timbered slave cabin from a  plantation, Harriet Tubman's hymn book and  a shotgun shell from the 1963 bombing of  the 16th Street Baptist Church in Alabama.  Emmett Till's casket sits in a room of its own,  with a solemn procession of visitors lined  up to pay their respects. Move onward and  Malcolm X's Koran, James Brown's black cape  and President Barack Obama's inauguration  invitation get their due. Interactive displays  let you drive a car following the Green Book (a  guide for African American road-trippers) and  learn how to step dance. Mega queues attest  to the museum's significance.