By BRETT ZONGKER
Associated Press

WASHINGTON — While its new building is still under construction, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture is offering a look at its growing collection.

A new exhibit, “Through the African American Lens,” offers selections from the museum’s 40,000 objects. It opens to the public Friday in a gallery at the National Museum of American History.

The exhibit includes artifacts from slavery, the Civil War and personal items from abolitionist Harriet Tubman, as well as items marking African-Americans’ achievements in sports and entertainment. The museum also holds the dining room table where the Brown family gathered with NAACP lawyers to plan the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case in 1954 for equal access in schools.

The exhibit will be open until the new museum opens in late 2016.