Shortly before the National Museum of African American History and Culture opened to the public in 2016, Kobe Bryant took a walk through its sports gallery, which chronicles Black athletes fight for equality and their cultural contributions.
Mr. Bryant, whose $1 million donation to the museum gave him the sneak peek, later decided to donate some of his own memorabilia to the collection, including a Los Angeles Lakers uniform and a pair of shoes that he wore during the 2008 NBA finals.
Those items had not yet made it into the museums gallery, but after Mr. Bryants sudden death in a helicopter crash in January, which also killed his daughter Gianna Bryant, the museum has decided to put his jersey on display, it said on Monday.
Damion L. Thomas, the museums sports curator, who walked with Mr. Bryant through the gallery in 2016, said that part of the reasoning for displaying Mr. Bryants jersey was that after Mr. Bryants death, he had been seeing visitors congregate by a photo of him that was up in the gallery.read more
African-American History Museum Displays Kobe Bryant’s Jersey
