11-05-2025
'There Is No Future In Forgetting': Watch Great Americans Medal Recipient Ava DuVernay's Smithsonian Speech
'Let us remind those who try to 'restore' a narrow, divisive past, that the future belongs to the whole of us,' said Great Americans Medal recipient Ava DuVernay to a Washington DC crowd this week upon receiving the honor from the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.
Rebuking those who 'fear…the full American story told in its dazzling complexity and devastating contradictions,' the Academy Award nominee also noted 'history is not a weapon to be sheathed when inconvenient. It is not a bedtime story meant to lull us to sleep. It is a river, flowing… deep and often turbulent.'
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Putting it very bluntly, DuVernay told the crowd: There is no future in forgetting.
While never directly mentioning Donald Trump by name in her May 8 remarks, DuVernay characteristically made her point extremely clear to anyone picking up what she was putting down about his ongoing MAGA attacks on democracy, diversity and the Smithsonian itself. Stating that 'now at a time when truth itself is under revision,' the filmmaker and activist starkly added: 'We know that what is sometimes labeled improper ideology is in fact connective, that what some call distorted is simply a new perspective, long buried, now revealed.'
Joining past Great Americans Award recipients Gen. Colin Powell, Thomas J. Brokaw, Ex-Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright, Cal Ripken Jr., Billie Jean King, Paul Simon, Anthony Fauci, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (posthumously) and YoYo Ma, DuVernay is the 10th person to be given the honor. The ARRAY founder is also 'the first director, writer and producer to receive the award,' according to the Smithsonian. Emmy, BAFTA and Peabody Award winner DuVernay was chosen this year because of 'her lifetime contributions embodying American ideas and ideals,' the Smithsonian said in its announcement of the award.
Watch the career spanning Honoree video that preceded DuVernay's speech here:
'DuVernay's extraordinary impact through the medium of film, using it to cast an unflinching eye on American history brought her forward as someone who exemplifies the highest ideals of artistry, altruism and advocacy,' the museum's Elizabeth MacMillan Director Anthea M. Hartig said of the Origin director in presenting the award. 'Her service and achievements embody the true meaning of a Great American.'
Read Ava DuVernay's full Smithsonian speech here:
Thank you to the National Museum of American History, Dr. Hartig and the remarkable leadership of the Smithsonian for bestowing upon me this truly incredible honor. It is not lost on me – what it means to stand in this place, supported by an institution that understands the weight of history… and the wonder of telling it well.
That understanding feels especially urgent now, at a time when truth itself is under revision… and fear feels like an animating force.
Fear of mirrors. Fear of memory.
Fear of the full American story told in its dazzling complexity and devastating contradictions.
History is not a weapon to be sheathed when inconvenient. It is not a bedtime story meant to lull us to sleep. It is a river, flowing… deep and often turbulent. And the Smithsonian has long been the bridge that lets us cross with care.
We know that what is sometimes labeled 'improper ideology' is in fact connective. That what some call 'distorted' is simply a new perspective—long buried, now revealed.
Let me tell you about the child who walks into the Smithsonian and sees a photograph of a woman who looks like her mother, who looks like her grandmother, standing tall in protest, or in prayer, or in pride.
Let me tell you about the teacher who brings students here because their textbooks will not speak of redlining, or Tulsa, or internment camps, or Stonewall. Let me tell you about the families—Black, white, brown, immigrant, native—who walk through those doors and feel that this country might make room for all of them.
That is not indoctrination.
That is belonging.
That is education.
That is democracy.
And at the helm of this bastion of truth stands a man of vision, a man of class, of fortitude, secretary, doctor extravagant —Dr. Lonnie Bunch. The first historian to lead the Smithsonian. The first African American to do so. A curator of courage. A guardian of good. A builder of bridges between pain and progress.
Under his stewardship, the Smithsonian has done what America must continue to do—confront the contradictions in our founding, illuminate the fault lines in our systems, and still hold space for grace, for grit, for growth, for greatness.
Because here the truth is… There is no honor in history that flatters itself. There is no integrity in memory that only remembers some. And there is no future in forgetting.
To those who would close their eyes to injustice, who would silence the voices of our elders, our ancestors, our scholars, our artists —I offer this:
We will not comply with forgetting. We will not make myths in place of memory. We will not trade the truth for comfort.
Instead, we will gather.
We will remember.
We will teach.
We will share.
We will tell it all.
Let us hold that line.
And let us remind those who try to 'restore' a narrow, divisive past — That the future belongs to the whole of us. And even when the current swell is upon us, the bridge will hold, because truth deserves passage. And with the Smithsonian and this museum, we do not cross alone.
Thank you for tonight, very much.
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