Broadcaster Tavis Smiley doesn't mince words to describe the 'America I Am' touring exhibit that opened in Washington D.C. Tueday to kick off Black History Month.

"It is the biggest, baddest, boldest exhibit ever conceived to tell the story of the African-American contribution to our country," Smiley said in an interview Tuesday before The African American Imprint exhibit opened at the National Geographic Museum with more than 200 artifacts that celebrate black achievement.

"I understand that might sound like hyperbole or hype," Smiley said. "But it takes four theaters and 12 galleries to show all of the pieces. It takes a couple of hours to go see it all and I promise that visitors won't be the same once they do."

Items on display reach back into history and include "The Door of No Return" from the Cape Coast Castle in Ghana, shackles used in the American slave trade, letters of abolitionists and the door key from the Birmingham jail cell that held Dr. Martin Luther King.

Artifacts in the exhibit also highlight the cultural contributions of black people like a trumpet played by Louis Armstrong, handwritten notes from Langston Hughes, a boxing robe worn by Muhammad Ali and a model of the first traffic signal which was built by Garrett Morgan.

Smiley has parlayed his visibility and influence as host of the nationally televised Tavis Smiley Show into the chief inspiration behind the "America I Am" project.

"I didn't want to explore just a slice of our contributions because that has been done before," Smiley said. "I wanted an amalgam of our contribution so that is wide the the items on display are so wide ranging."

Smiley said a central question about the relevance of black people in America, originally posed by historian W.E.B Du Bois more than 100 years ago, acts as the inspiration for the exhibit.

"Du Bois asked "Would America have been America without her Negro people," Smiley said. "I told our partners that this is the question I want answered when people visited the exhibit. We answer that question in a resounding way without demonizing anybody else."

The exhibit, underwritten by Walmart, is midway through its four-year, 10-city run. But Smiley said the tour that debuted in Los Angeles around the time of President Barack Obama's inauguration continues to grow and change from city to city.

For example, while promoting the Washington D.C. leg of the tour in several local churches last week, Smiley met a pastor who had possession of a writing desk used by Frederick Douglass. The inclusion of the Douglass artifact in the exhibit was too good to resist.

"I spoke with the pastor and we are picking up the desk today so it can be part of the Washington D.C. experience," Smiley said. "We had a similar experience with Ernie Green (one of the Little Rock Nine). He had some items that we were lucky enough to get included in the exhibit."

Smiley said despite the large number of items of display, organizers have to the leeway to swap out certain artifacts when special items that might be of greater interest to local viewers are made available.

Smiley said his new found appreciation for just how precious historical artifacts are has colored how he has viewed the recent political uprising in Egypt against the government.

Though he understands the anger of the demonstrators, Smiley said he was dismayed that some people entered the national museum and destroyed artifacts dating back centuries.

"It broke my heart seeing people destroying their own history," Smiley said. "No matter how upset they were at the government, I see no value of destroying items that are so important to the world. Why do they have to destroy their past? They should be concerned with creating a new future."

The unrest and destruction of history in Egypt has clearly given Smiley a greater appreciation of his accomplishment in regard to "America I Am."

"When you see this exhibit you simply fall more in love with black people," Smiley said. "When you consider where we started started out from 400 hundred years ago against all odds, you see an amazing story. You walk out of the exhibit feeling like you are walking on clouds."