Lonnie Bunch III, Smithsonian Secretary, Plans Retirement 

One of the Ebony Power 100 special honoree Lonnie Bunch lll, 73, has retirement on the horizon after a tenure of uphill battles and resilience due to the current Trump administration. “Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch plans to announce his retirement from the institution at the end of this year, bringing to a close a tenure marked by unprecedented pressure on the museum complex from a White House keen on controlling how to tell the nation’s history,” said a statement in The Atlantic. The institution includes 21 museums, 20 libraries and the National Zoo.

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“It is with very mixed emotions and heartfelt gratitude that I announce my retirement from the Smithsonian,” Bunch said in a statement. “I leave with pride and sadness, gratitude and joy, and with enormous confidence in the people who will carry this remarkable institution forward.”

Bunch was the first historian to become secretary and the first museum director to become secretary since 1945. He has over 40 years of experience in the museum field. In the late 1970s, he was the education specialist at the National Air and Space Museum, and from 1989 through 2000, he worked in the office of curatorial affairs in the National Museum of American History.

The announcement comes at a trying time for Black storytelling and, more importantly, for preserving history. The Trump administration has constantly criticized the Smithsonian’s presentation of America’s past. “History is so important. It shapes who we are… there were people who were Black a hundred years ago, who we’ve forgotten about,” he told EBONY in 2025.

Source: EBONY