African American History Museum changes policy for obtaining passes

The Smithsonian is providing new options in order to get passes to the recently-opened National Museum of African American History and Culture.

The museum said it will no longer give out same-day, in-person passes at 9:15 a.m. every day. Instead, same-day timed passes will only be available through the museum's website beginning at 6:30 a.m. each day. Visitors can get up to four free passes.

In addition, a limited number of walk-up passes will be available starting at 1 p.m. on weekdays. But there will be no walk-up passes distributed on the weekends.

This will all go into effect starting on Monday, Dec. 19.

Advanced timed passes for April 2017 will be available online or by calling 866-297-4020 starting on Jan. 4. May 2017 passes will be available on Feb. 1.

The museum will also be expanding hours to accommodate the expected larger holiday crowds and will be open from 10 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. from Dec. 26 to Dec. 30.

The museum's founding director says over 600,000 visitors have come through since it opened back in September.