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Lowe's Donates $1M To African American Museum

The National Museum Of African American History. Credit: Tony Hisgett for Wikimedia

Lowe's Home Improvement is donating $1 million dollars to the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Money from the Mooresville-based company will support exhibitions and programs at the museum, which is being dedicated Saturday by President Obama.

The Charlotte Observer reports the exhibits will include artifacts from both Carolinas, including the lunch counter from the 1960 Woolworth's sit-ins in Greensboro.

The museum is located on five acres adjacent to the Washington Monument, and holds a collection of about 30,000 objects covering major periods of African American history.

It will be the country's largest and most comprehensive cultural institution devoted to telling the stories of African Americans.

Neal Charnoff joined 88.5 WFDD as Morning Edition host in 2014. Raised in the Catskill region of upstate New York, he graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1983. Armed with a liberal arts degree, Neal was fully equipped to be a waiter. So he prolonged his arrested development bouncing around New York and L.A. until discovering that people enjoyed listening to his voice on the radio. After a few years doing overnight shifts at a local rock station, Neal spent most of his career at Vermont Public Radio. He began as host of a nightly jazz program, where he was proud to interview many of his idols, including Dave Brubeck and Sonny Rollins. Neal graduated to the news department, where he was the local host for NPR's All Things Considered for 14 years. In addition to news interviews and features, he originated and produced the Weekly Conversation On The Arts, as well as VPR Backstage, which profiled theater productions around the state. He contributed several stories to NPR, including coverage of a devastating ice storm. Neal now sees the value of that liberal arts degree, and approaches life with the knowledge that all subjects and all art forms are connected to each other. Neal and his wife Judy are enjoying exploring North Carolina and points south. They would both be happy to never experience a Vermont winter again.

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