Belleville Recognizes Smithsonian Secretary Bunch by Renaming Childhood Street in His Honor
Posted March 21, 2023Photo Credit Belleville Township: Belleville Mayor Michael Melham and Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch III holding the sign symbolically renaming Beech Street as Lonnie Bunch III Way.
Hundreds of proud Belleville residents cheered on Monday afternoon, March 20, 2023 as the town symbolically renamed Beech Street in honor of Lonnie Bunch III.
For the man who blazed a path from this tree-lined road in Belleville to become the first Black secretary of the Smithsonian, it was a trip down Memory Lane.
He reminisced about old teachers and homework assignments and school dances with dozens of classmates from Belleville High School Class of 1970 before and after the ceremony to unveil the new street sign declaring this as Lonnie Bunch III Way.
The way Belleville welcomes him back with opened arms seemed to touch the man who has been honored here and abroad his work as the 14th secretary of the world’s largest museum, education and research complex, not to mention for his work as the founding director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture – the 19th museum in the ever-expanding Smithsonian family.
“I’m honored in a way because I think a lot about this day,” Bunch said. “I realized that at 17, all I wanted to do was get out of Beech Street. And at 70, all I want to do is come back. There’s nothing more powerful than having your hometown greet you. I have gotten awards from around the world, but nothing - nothing - matters as much as this today. So, I want to thank you for giving me something that I always will remember.”
Photo Credit Belleville Township: About 30 members of the Belleville High School Class of 1970 attended Monday's event to symbolically rename Beech Street in honor of Lonnie Bunch - their former classmate.
Photo Credit Belleville Township: Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch III unveiling the new street sign, declaring the tree-lined street he grew up on as "Lonnie Bunch III Way."
Photo Credit Belleville Township: Former neighbors and classmates greeted Lonnie Bunch III as he returned to his hometown on Monday.