Slavery Museum: Fundraising and Debates Continues

[Emmanuel Dabney]

Slavery museum's appeal
September 23, 2006 12:52 am

From WIRE and STAFF REPORTS

RICHMOND--If every American contributes $8, the U.S. National Slavery Museum could open exhibits as early as next year, Bill Cosby, a key contributor to the project, said yesterday.

Cosby joined Richmond Mayor Doug Wilder in launching a new campaign to raise $100 million toward the Fredericksburg museum's $200 million cost by asking people to give up what Cosby termed "the price of two shots of Scotch."

Cosby also encouraged parents to donate on their kids' behalf.

"The incentive is that they would join in with the rest of the United States of America in saying yes, as an American, I gave $8 to help build something that tells the story," he said in a teleconference with Wilder. "This is needed. Period."

Cosby has already committed to donating at least $1 million to the museum.

Cosby said he came up with the $8 idea while brainstorming on what the average American could afford to give. Wilder said the number also has symbolic significance to what is touted as the first national museum dedicated solely to telling the story of American slavery.

"The figure 8, in shape, is both of the shackles, which is the symbol of slavery," said Wilder, a former Virginia governor and the grandson of slaves. "If you turn it on its side, it's the symbol of infinite freedom."

Incidentally, if each of the country's 288.4 million men, women and children donated $8 toward the museum, its coffers would boast $2.3 billion. (If the appeal is strictly limited to adults, the cash drops to $1.7 billion.)

The campaign marks the latest attempt at fundraising for a project in the works for more than a decade.

Wilder struggled to find a location before settling on a site in the Silver Cos.' Celebrate Virginia South near the Rappahannock River in Fredericksburg.

Some exhibits were supposed to open in 2003. Later, the date was pushed to 2007.

"In terms of whether the museum will be open next year, no, it won't," Wilder said. "Will some parts of it be open next year? It might be."

The primary problem has been raising funds, organizers acknowledge.

Fundraising seemed to get a jolt in February, when organizers had to reschedule a gala after high ticket sales forced them to look for a larger venue.

The event, rescheduled for June, attracted 1,100 people to Washington's Warner Theatre, where they watched performances by Cosby and entertainer Ben Vereen.

Before the gala, museum officials said they'd raised about $50 million toward the facility's construction. They apparently have not revised those figures--Wilder repeated the number during yesterday's teleconference.

Cosby said organizers continue to wrestle with limited corporate participation. He blamed the stigma of slavery.

"Corporate America is having a terrible problem coming up and divvying up with the money," he said, speaking from his home in Massachusetts. "They're more worried about whose feelings they would hurt if this museum is built."

In an Aug. 14 Business Week article, Wilder said some of the corporations he'd approached for support described his efforts as "trying to pull scabs off of old wounds."

"It's so inflammatory," Fredericksburg Mayor Tom Tomzak said yesterday. "But that's why the museum is needed."

Tomzak and several other City Council members said they were not invited to participate in yesterday's conference.

"It would have been nice had they done that," Tomzak said.

An article in a Richmond magazine earlier this month hinted that Wilder might want to move the museum--slated for 38 acres in Celebrate Virginia--to Richmond, a city that refused to offer incentives for the project years ago.

Fredericksburg City Councilwoman Debby Girvan said she read the Sept. 13 article in Style Weekly and immediately called Vonita Foster, the museum's executive director.

"She assured me that those rumors had been going around for a while," Girvan said. "I was assured it was staying here."

Yesterday's announcement shifts the fundraising focus to the grass-roots level. Now Cosby said it's time to target "foot soldiers."

"This kind of campaign generally fails badly," he said. "But I'm going to try again because I'm going to present this national slavery museum as a jewel that's missing in a crown."



ON THE NET: www.usnationalslaverymuseum.org (http://www.usnationalslaverymuseum.org)


----------
Copyright 2006 The Free Lance-Star Publishing Company.

Article found online at: http://www.fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2006/092006/09232006/224101

[Dignann]

Cosby's call gets thumbs up

Would Americans donate $8 to the planned slavery museum in Celebrate Virginia? Most in a random sampling here said yes.

By KELLY HANNON

Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star
September 24, 2006

If people on the streets of Fredericksburg are an accurate barometer, most adults and teens are willing to donate $8 to support the U.S. National Slavery Museum.

"I'd consider it. I'm not sure about where I'd send it," said Scott Quann, a student at Fredericksburg Christian School. For him and his friends, $8 translates into a CD or food, he said.

"Who do I give it to?" Quann asked.

Only a handful of people were familiar with the museum's newest initiative until it was explained: Comedian Bill Cosby and Richmond Mayor Doug Wilder on Friday announced a $100 million fundraising campaign to open the National Slavery Museum in Fredericksburg.

To get things rolling, Cosby asked each American to donate $8. Cosby has already pledged $1 million to the museum, scheduled to open on land in Celebrate Virginia in 2008.

They picked $8 because they thought every American could afford to give this amount, and the figure 8 is the shape of shackles used to secure slaves.

Cosby said he realized this type of campaign "generally fails badly, but I'm going to try again because I'm going to present this national slavery museum as a jewel that's missing in a crown."

If all Americans--288.4 million men, women and children--each gave $8, the campaign would raise $2.3 billion.

Paula Royster, a Spotsylvania County resident and president of the Center for African-American Genealogical Research Inc., thinks the $8 appeal will be a success. She was attending a Black Arts Festival at the original Walker-Grant School in Fredericksburg.

"That's lunch for one day. It's probably 3 gallons of gas. You can spend $8 a day, $40 a week on things we can't account for. It's a very small sacrifice to make. I'm sure people will respond," Royster said.

Another festival-goer, Annyoz Hamm, is eager to contribute $8.

"I think we need more than the block on the corner," Hamm said, referring to a marker at the corner of Charles and William streets in downtown Fredericksburg where slaves were once auctioned.

"There's a lot of history here young people need to be told. They've never heard of 'Roots.' They only know Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X," said Hamm, a youth counselor and Fredericksburg resident.

But Elaine Tompkins of Spotsylvania, who was walking along Caroline Street, said she would not contribute $8 to the museum--she thinks such a facility belongs in Charleston, S.C., not Fredericksburg. And she would prefer that a national museum focus on the achievements of black Americans.

"I think there's too much emphasis put on the slavery part," Tompkins said.

The Rev. Hashmel Turner, a Fredericksburg city councilman, offered the city's greeting at the Black Arts Festival.

He said the appeal has gotten people's attention. Even if it falls short of netting $8 per American, the new wave of donations will go a long way toward building the museum, he said.

"There are many Americans that are going to step up to the plate," Turner said.

For information about the U.S. National Slavery Museum, and to donate, go online to usnational slaverymuseum.org or call the museum's offices at 540/548-8818. Donations can also be mailed to the United States National Slavery Museum, 1320 Central Park Blvd., Suite 251, Fredericksburg, Va. 22401.

http://www.fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2006/092006/09242006/224179


Eric

[Dreamer42]

It is my humble opinion that something like this is overdue. And thanks, Emmanuel, for posting this story so it could be brought to our attention. Is it the fund raising method or that this museum is going to be built that is so controversial? I fail to see how something like a museum proposal like this could offend anyone. If one were to compare slavery with the Holocaust there could be seen many similaraties regarding a sad time in a nation's history that most would soon forget. But as Dignann noted, so few today have heard about Roots as to have no clue about slavery, short of reading a few chapters in a history book, and often information is so watered down or so emotional that cliche's often surface as fact.
My wife and I homeschool, and even now she is teaching about Abolitionists, the "drinking gourd" & etc., and about the risks that many anti-slavery citizens, north and south, slave and free, took.
At the risk of a recomendation to visit the web site myself (which I intend to do shortly), when is the proposed completion date for the museum, if sufficient funds are raised? I ask this because my family is planning on traveling to Washnigton D.C. next summer and this would be a great site to visit.

-Jay Reid
Dreamer42

[Emmanuel Dabney]

Kaine backing museum funds
December 19, 2006 12:50 am


By CHELYEN DAVIS
RICHMOND--Gov. Tim Kaine has proposed giving $250,000 to the U.S. Slavery Museum, scheduled to be built in Fredericksburg and spearheaded by former Gov. Doug Wilder.

The governor's budget amendments, announced last week, include $250,000 for the slavery museum next year. The money must still be approved by the House and Senate before it's added to the budget.

Kaine spokesman Kevin Hall said Wilder did not formally request any state help. Instead, Kaine's administration received a letter from the museum's Executive Director Vonita Foster, requesting financial support for the slavery museum but not specifying a dollar amount.

Kaine chose the $250,000 figure, Hall said.

"To my knowledge there was never any discussion about amounts, so when the governor was looking at the non-states, recognizing that individual lawmakers often step up and propose even more, decided he would propose the quarter-million just as a gesture of support for the project," Hall said.

That is not out of line with the amounts Kaine put in his budget for 37 other state museums and cultural attractions--most ranged from $100,000 to $500,000. In all, the governor budgeted $7.5 million for such programs.

The slavery museum and those other attractions fall under the category of "non-state agencies" --things that are not the state's responsibility, but which wind up getting state support when the state budget is flush.

Sen. John Chichester, R-Northumberland, said when he reviews the governor's budget amendments during the upcoming legislative session, he'll view this as "just another non-state agency.

"Two-hundred-fifty-thousand is a little bit heavy, but it's not unprecedented," Chichester added.

Earlier this year, museum officials said cash and pledges toward the project total about $50 million, half of what is needed to construct the 290,000-square-foot museum . They want another $100 million as an endowment.

The museum, which is being designed by architect Chien Chung Pei, will be built on 38 acres in Fredericksburg's Celebrate Virginia development, on a hill overlooking the Rappahannock River.



To reach CHELYEN DAVIS: 804/782-9362
Email: cdavis@freelancestar.com

Online at: http://www.fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2006/122006/12192006/244991

[brown]

Do they give an address for donations to be sent?
Has anyone on the A/C spearheaded any support, other than this the news provided in this thread?

[dusty27]

Lindsey,

http://www.usnationalslaverymuseum.org/home.asp

Mr. Cosby should make an appeal to all the high earning athletes out there of African American decent to chip in on this project.

[paulcalloway]

Do they give an address for donations to be sent?
Has anyone on the A/C spearheaded any support, other than this the news provided in this thread?

I think it's an important point you raise. The funding of the Slavery Museum is a project that this community should jump on board with.

I'd give more than $8, I assure you.

[paulcalloway]

Lindsey,

http://www.usnationalslaverymuseum.org/home.asp

Mr. Cosby should make an appeal to all the high earning athletes out there of African American decent to chip in on this project.

I see your point but I don't think African Americans should be expected to raise more than the rest of us. This is an American issue - not just an issue for blacks.

[brown]

Mr. Calloway,
What do you feel is the best way for us as a community to promote this? Obviously Mr. Dabney started the ball by posting the first (and third) articles. What is the next step to encourage folks to step-up as Americans? Beyond giving, what can an individual do around here?
Lindsey

[dusty27]

Paul,

I wasn't implying that black athletes should give more than anyone else. I just think that it is, and should be, a matter of pride for African Americans to be able the tell the truth about what happened to their relatives. We hear about how folks "give back" once they become famous. I was just saying that this might be a good path of raising some serious money.

Lindsey,

As to your question, I would think that those involved would need to advertise this venture more. I hadn't heard about it until I saw it here on the forums. Something that we all can do is to write an opinion piece for our local newspapers telling everyone about the museum and its need for money. Free advertising, so to speak.

[Dale Beasley]

I think that building the Museum is a grand idea. I think that all Americans of every descent should be able to tell the story of the journey of their people. That is what America is all about. Reminds me of this Iraqi soldier that asked me about the different nationalities of the Ameirican Soldier, I just smiled and said, "I didn't notice". He was persistant and asked me about the "Mexican American" and the "African American" Soldier. I told him "there was no such thing as an African or Mexican American Soldier, but that we were all Americans of different descents."

Emmanuel, hope you are able to have some "In-put" on the project.

[Emmanuel Dabney]

Well, my opinion asked...;) Take it or leave it.

In unrelated news to this note I have been praising Cosby for many other things but this as well.

Virginia should be the home of the National Slavery Museum. Virginia for decades had the largest number of slaves, a sizeable number of free blacks, and at many times a surplus of slaves.

I have met Dr. Foster and find her to be an excellent lady who should be able to lead the museum. I am still interested in how the exhibits will portray the experience of the enslaved and the enslaver but time will tell on that (projected date opening of 2008 assuming they get the money to build it within the next year).

I think alerting your locality about the value of having such a museum, alerting them it is even in the making, and informing them about the history and importance of the institution in the U.S. (and if possible in your locality) will serve a great purpose. Whether it gets people to donate or not is another story but it will at least let the story of slavery not be forgotten.

I again argue trying to make it personal as possible to your community. For example, if you are a resident of Charleston, S.C. write an article and let your fellow residents become aware of the first president of Wilberforce University. He was Charleston native Daniel Payne. He, a free black, was raised by his enslaved aunt after becoming an orphan and went North and went on to this notable achievement. If you live in Charleston, don't let his story be forgotten. Tell people that in his memory, that of his aunt, and countless thousands others that they should support in donation or visiting this museum.

I am looking forward to the opening and I am hoping for a fair, unbiased view at the experience of enslaved and free blacks, their white, black, and Indian/Native American enslavers, males and females, adults and children, filled with a collection that will make that experience come to life. Let it be a place of education and healing for centuries of hatred and misunderstanding of these primary cultures who co-exist on the American landscape.

As Mr. Beasley and Paul have noted this is what PBS would call an American experience and all Americans should be interested in how this develops.

[ley74]

Emmanuel:

Gov/Mayor/soon-to-be senator Wilder has tried to sustain the momentum gathered by Dr. Cosby's call to the check books. Trouble is, as with so many other worthy projects, he is a single voice with a fairly screwed up city to run. Say what you will, but Ole Doug is doing a yeoman's job in the City of Monuments.

Is there a fund raiser event in this? Fredericksburg is a tough town in which to enlist local support for much of anything. A national focus? It is possible but will take coordination.

The point has been made here, let's see what can be done. This is a great forum to brainstorm.

By the way, this is all about history.

[Dignann]

It appears that they're having some success soliciting donations.


Slavery museum fundraising increases

Fundraising up for slavery museum, according to 2005 tax filing

By EDIE GROSS

Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star
December 21, 2006

Though far from its $100 million goal, the U.S. National Slavery Museum raised almost 10 times as much money in 2005 as it did in 2004, according to tax forms filed by the organization.

The museum reported $938,186 in gifts, grants and contributions during fiscal year 2005. It reported raising $97,674 the year before.

The museum's marketing efforts increased in 2005, and it relied on publicity from supportive entertainers such as Bill Cosby and Ben Vereen to get the word out, said spokesman Matt Langan.

"Early in '05, they put their stake in the ground to really drive awareness to the museum itself," he said.

That year's earnings brought to nearly $19 million the amount of public support provided to the museum since 2001. Most of that--$15.8 million--is associated with the 38-acre site in Celebrate Virginia donated by the Silver Cos.

Another $1 million was approved by the Fredericksburg City Council in 2002. That money is being repaid through a special tax district in Celebrate Virginia.

Since July 2005, museum officials have maintained that they have $50 million in cash and pledges toward their $100 million project. The tax form filed with the IRS does not include information on pledges.

Last year's Hurricane Katrina diverted donations from lots of nonprofits outside the devastated areas, including the slavery museum, said Langan. Officials are hoping donors will make good on their pledges in the coming year, he said.

Money raised this summer at the museum's fundraising gala at the Warner Theatre in Washington will be included on the organization's 2006 tax form, known as a 990. Langan said yesterday that the gala donations hadn't been totaled yet.

In September, Cosby, who himself has pledged $1 million toward the project, asked each American to donate $8 to the museum's creation. Since then, Langan said, officials have noticed a "spike" in grass roots giving.

Gov. Tim Kaine has proposed giving $250,000 to the museum in the state's 2007-08 budget. That still must be approved by the House and Senate during next year's session.

The 290,000-square-foot facility is scheduled to open on the banks of the Rappahannock River in Celebrate Virginia by 2008, but museum officials have promised some kind of "soft opening" next year.

Plans for the facility call for a full-size replica of a slave ship, 10 permanent galleries, a 450-seat amphitheater, two libraries, a lecture hall, several classrooms and an outdoor garden featuring sculptures, commemorative walls and tobacco and cotton crops.

The facility has already collected between 5,000 and 6,000 slavery-related artifacts, including furniture, documents, shackles and collars.

The museum also added two new directors to its board in 2005, bringing the total to nine. They are Larry Silver, chief executive officer of the Silver Cos. and John Elkington, CEO of Performa, a Memphis entertainment real-estate development company.

"The ball is definitely moving in the right direction for the museum," Langan said.

http://www.fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2006/122006/12212006/245611


Eric

[Dignann]

Murky and slow

The National Slavery Museum seems to be making little headway

Editorial

Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star
December 27, 2006

Murky and slow

Does the National Slavery Museum have a viable plan?

AFIRST-RATE MUSEUM devoted to the story of American slavery would illuminate a related story now told to battlefield visitors each year at Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Spotsylvania Court House, and the Wilderness--places that would have escaped the bloody renown of history had human bondage never crept onto this continent. But will the proposed National Slavery Museum ever tell its part of the saga?

The struggle to open the museum, a long-held dream of L. Douglas Wilder, a former Virginia governor, has waxed for more than twice as long as the Civil War itself, but museum officials have little to show for their activities beyond a parcel, valued by them at $15.8 million, that was donated by the Silver Cos. in 2001 to site the facility. All other public donations tote up to $3.2 million. In fiscal 2005, reveal tax forms, the museum raised $938,186 in gifts and grants, while spending $603,897. If the institution's cost is reckoned at $200 million, a commonly cited sum, at this rate it should be going great guns in just a few centuries.

True, the museum's financial health could be more hale than its current assets suggest. Museum honchos say they have cash and pledges totaling about $50 million. But the latter by a wide margin predominate. And questions arise about the bankability of those pledges. Some have yet to be redeemed, museum officials say, because would-be donors shunted dollars to the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Are the pledgers likely now to come through when the museum fails to raise even $1 million in hard cash in a single year? Are potential donors apt to whip out the checkbook when they learn that museum leaders today can't put a dollar figure on the gifts raised at a celebrity gala that took place in June?

A hard-headed observer--the only kind you want to size up a multimillion-dollar project hinging mostly on goodwill and trust--might well conclude that Mr. Wilder's museum is going nowhere fast. Some exhibits, after all, were to have premiered in 2003. The curtain hasn't gone up yet.

Do museum directors have a coherent strategy for raising the money needed to open and operate, in the near future, a top-quality facility for teaching about American slavery? Outside of their small and taciturn band, no one really knows. If they do have a plan, it's the first story they should be eager to tell.

http://www.fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2006/122006/12272006/246677


Eric

[Emmanuel Dabney]

MODERATOR NOTE: THIS WILL NOT BE USED TO SPIN A DISCUSSION ABOUT MODERN POLITICS. TAKE IT SOMEWHERE ELSE!! IT HAS BEEN INCLUDED HERE BECAUSE IT RELATES TO THE EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES OF THE MUSEUM.

Slavery apology debate shows need for museum
February 6, 2007 12:50 am


I have read news reports and editorials about comments made by Del. Frank Hargrove, who said in the Virginia General Assembly that "black citizens should get over [slavery]" ["Apology on slavery?" Jan. 19].
As the executive director of the U.S. National Slavery Museum, I firmly believe that Americans should not forget about any part of our nation's history, including slavery. Slavery is one of the most defining political, social, and economic aspects of the American experience.

Just as the Civil War affected our nation and many Americans commemorate and re-enact Civil War battles and visit Civil War battlefields and museums that Americans' tax dollars help build and support, so should Americans think about supporting a museum that teaches us about the institution of American slavery.

Americans will never completely forget the horrors of the Civil War. Similarly, the horrors of slavery also must be remembered.

The U.S. National Slavery Museum in Fredericksburg was founded to offer people the opportunity to learn more about the history and effects of slavery in the U.S.

The USNSM will educate some and re-educate others about how slavery has played an astonishing central role in our history and culture. The USNSM will not cast blame or guilt, but it will expand upon the centrality of slavery throughout American history--from infancy in the Virginia House of Burgesses to the Declaration of Independence; from the ratification of the Constitution and its 13 original colonies to 33 states at the beginning of the Civil War in 1861; and from the promises of Reconstruction to today's reality.

The USNSM will provide the urgently needed common ground where Americans of all ethnicities discuss, learn, and implement positive changes. Americans should know the complete story of slavery, regardless of what Del. Hargrove believes. We never should forget our history.

Americans should embrace the museum's mission as it will tell the complete story of the perseverance, contributions, hardships, and struggles of slaves and free blacks in America. Diverse people played significant roles in this important chapter in our history, and slavery has resonated through voices of many Americans who need to be heard.

Can we listen, learn, and remember the truth and open the door that heretofore has been closed to most Americans about an important historical era?

The USNSM will challenge people by providing knowledge of an American story never quite told in a balanced and accurate arena.

Recent scientific data clearly reveal that we are truly one people. Let's start to act accordingly.

Vonita Foster

Fredericksburg

Vonita Foster is executive director of the U.S. National Slavery Museum.

Copyright 2007 The Free Lance-Star Publishing Company.

Online at: http://www.fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2007/022007/02062007/255388

[Dignann]

Slave museum organizers seek $10 million by fall

By DIONNE WALKER

Associated Press Writer
RICHMOND, Va.

Free Lance-Star [Fredericksburg, Va.]
July 13, 2007

Organizers of the United States National Slavery Museum must raise $10 million by summer's end or risk missing their late 2008 goal for opening the slave history repository, already more than a decade in the works.

"They can complete phase one and be ready for us to open in 2008 if we can do something between now and the fall," museum director Vonita Foster told The Associated Press this month. "We hope that money will come in through some generous investor."

The cash would go toward constructing a visitor center and gardens, the first phase of the Fredericksburg museum slated to contain more than 5,000 slavery relics.

For now, the 38-acre site along the banks of the Rappahannock River sits empty.

"The biggest thing you've got to do is to have something visible," said Richmond Mayor L. Douglas Wilder. "People have got to see something."

Wilder, the nation's first elected black governor, thought up the museum during a trip to Africa in 1993. He's since rounded up support among such black celebrities as entertainers Bill Cosby and Ben Vereen.

Still, fundraising has stumbled.

Wilder has blamed difficulty among Americans with acknowledging the tragedy of slavery. Neither he nor his supporters have come forward to fund the museum, saying they want the site to be financed by everyday Americans.

But the grandson of slaves acknowledged times are tough for many museums.

"Look at the problems they're having locating the Museum of the Confederacy. Where's the money coming from?" he said, pointing to the museum in the former Confederate capitol which has considered moving as attendance shrinks and Virginia Commonwealth University expands around it. "It's not unique to this museum."

The museum has $50 million in cash and in-kind donations on hand, an amount that hasn't budged much in the past few months despite a series of fundraising efforts.

Those have included a campaign urging each American to donate $8 _ symbolic of the manacles used to shackle slaves _ and another campaign letting supporters create a web-based video with Cosby.

Foster didn't say how much either campaign has raised.

"It's not bringing in the dollars that we need," she said. "We need corporate support and we need support from people that have millions and millions of dollars."

A full-scale replica of a Portuguese slave ship will anchor the complete museum, which will include galleries as well as artifacts.

"We'll build the museum," Wilder said. "The question is how long will it take."

http://www.fredericksburg.com/News/apmethods/apstory?urlfeed=D8QB9HUO0.xml


Eric

[Dignann]

Plan Gives Slavery Museum $100,000

Governor proposes $100,000 in state funds for slavery museum

By PAMELA GOULD

Free Lance-Star [Fredericksburg, Va.]
December 18, 2007

The U.S. National Slavery Museum is slated to receive $100,000 in state funds in the second year of Gov. Tim Kaine's two-year budget proposal, a spokesman for the governor said yesterday.

Because of tight revenue projections, no non-state agencies are getting funds in the first year of the spending proposal Kaine announced yesterday.

In its latest newsletter, the museum reported receiving $118,750 in the two-year state budget approved in 2006.

Matt Langan, spokesman for the museum, has not responded to The Free Lance-Star's requests for information since last Wednesday. That day, the museum released its fall 2007/winter 2008 newsletter, which makes several pleas for financial help from the public.

In July, Executive Director Vonita Foster said the museum needed to raise $10 million by summer's end in order to build the first phase of the facility by the end of 2008. She said she hoped then to open the entire museum in 2009 or 2010.

The entire museum and exhibits are estimated to cost $150 million.

The earliest the $100,00 in state funds could be awarded is July 1, 2009.

Phase one of the museum is a 2,500-square-foot visitors center, according to the newsletter. Phase two would be a 160,000-square-foot exhibit building. Phase three would be a 155,800-square-foot education building and atrium.

The museum's most recent tax return showed a nearly 60 percent drop in donations between 2005 and 2006. In 2005, the museum reported receiving $938,186; last year's donations totaled $383,582.

The 2006 tax return also shows assets of $17.7 million, approximately $17.4 million of which is the value of the land on which the museum is to be built.

The slavery museum is to be built on 38 acres in Fredericksburg within the Celebrate Virginia tourism and retail complex. The land was donated by The Silver Cos., developer of Celebrate Virginia.

The newsletter states that the museum officials have a building permit and all approvals needed to begin construction.

http://www.fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2007/122007/12182007/341900


Eric

[Emmanuel Dabney]

It's very clear: We need the National Slavery Museum here


Date published: 1/30/2008

It's very clear: We need the National Slavery Museum here

The Free Lance-Star is the very best example of why a National Slavery Museum is needed.

The newspaper's consistent enmity toward the National Slavery Museum is a well-documented disgrace to the Greater Fredericksburg area, so no one should be surprised at the Jan. 11 cartoon that again disparages the museum and its founder.

Just when it appears that The Free Lance-Star cannot descend any further into the depths of racist diatribes, it outdoes itself, as evident by the Jan. 11 cartoon.

Fair-minded and progressive residents of the area need only casually peruse your archaic, perverted tabloid to constantly be reminded that even in the beginning years of the 21st century, there are still pathetic, malicious, small-minded people in positions of minimal influence who insist on spewing venom under the guise of news reporting. Shame on you.

Kalahari and The National Slavery Museum will be welcomed socioeconomic and cultural resources for the area, and readers need only occasionally read the FLS to remind us of what we must constantly strive to overcome and defeat.

Gerald A. Foster

Spotsylvania


Date published: 1/30/2008


The one comment posted so far:

"I disagree. (posted by GOUSA , Jan. 30, 2008 5:39 am)

I think that it is clear there is no groundswell of support from either this community or nationally and especially from the black community. Maybe if it was in a different area of the country better known for the slave trade (yes, I know the history of slavery here, but only because I moved here. I assure you that people in the rest of the country don't think of Fburg when you mention slavery). The black community is not matching interest with donations & it just looks like a idea that will not come."

All online at: http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2008/012008/01302008/349835

[Johnny Lloyd]

Emmanuel/All:

I feel this is an awesome project when it comes to fruition- for the area, for our collective history as Americans, national understanding, etc.

I, for the record, would definitely donate money and/or participate in a quality event for such donation to this cause.

But... as 11 years+ experience in the hobby has told me in so many other projects I have seen before related to controversial issues... :confused_

In my opinion... Question remains overall:

Will the "ghosts of political correctness past" and fears of sore feelings creep into the overall story the museum tells?

Will (even can there be with such an emotional cultural issue) there be a "fair and balanced" view to show slavery for what it "truly was" based upon actual archaeological/cultural/period documentation accounts?

Again- I feel this museum is a wonderful and worthy idea, but I can't help but be wary/cautious in my personal thoughts. After all, we're trying to be objective about an emotional subject to many people, and that usually never bodes well for the outcome of such situations.

Just my soap box... I'm off it for now. :rolleyes:;)

-Johnny Lloyd

PS- Mr. Dabney, based solely upon my reading what research you have presented here on these forums about other topics, I think the slavery museum would be in solid hands with your judgement guiding the way. That is a big compliment in my eyes as well as others', I'm sure. :wink_smil

[Dignann]

Information on slavery museum hard to get

Would you like to know how plans are progressing for the U.S. National Slavery Museum--so would we

Editorial

Free Lance-Star [Fredericksburg, Va.]
February 20, 2008

As local stories go, it's potentially one of the biggest.

A national museum for the study of slavery, spearheaded by the first elected black governor in the United States, is proposed for Fredericksburg.

So how are the plans progressing? What's the latest construction schedule? What's the financial plan for building and operating the museum? Has fundraising picked up? Is $200 million the goal? Or is that $300 million? How much money did that major fundraising event in D.C. raise in 2006?

Haven't seen answers in The Free Lance-Star? There's a reason for that. We can't get the answers from museum officials or their representatives.

I asked three of our reporters who have worked on this story in recent years to describe museum leaders' attitudes toward releasing news about the project.

Every one of them documented a pattern of resistance to almost every request. One described the museum and its staff as "an impenetrable fortress."

The result has been that the public, and in some cases the public's representatives, have been left in the dark. Even Jud Honaker of the Silver Cos., the developer of the Celebrate Virginia project that would include the museum, has said he doesn't know where things stand.

That makes it hard to draw positive conclusions. Some city officials already refer to the museum in the past tense.

When we have written about this lack of information, the museum's side of the story generally hasn't been told--because the museum is unwilling to tell it.

Despite unfailing politeness on the part of our reporters, they have had to endure frustrations such as these:

A museum staff member literally shut the door in the face of one of our reporters when she arrived at museum offices with a written request to see a financial report the museum is required to make public.

Reporters calling museum offices to speak to the executive director, Vonita Foster, have been told that, "Dr. Foster does not take calls." They are referred to a Washington PR firm, which, in some cases, has taken days to return our calls. And then there are few answers.

In 2005, when former Gov. Doug Wilder came to Fredericksburg to hold a press conference, the museum staff notified several media outlets from Washington to Richmond, but not The Free Lance-Star. When a museum PR person was asked why the local paper was not notified, he said, "Well, you know, tit for tat," an apparent reference to our legitimate reporting on questions about the $1 million city loan to the museum.

And that's not all the public money involved in this project. Gov. Tim Kaine has included a $100,000 appropriation to the museum in his proposed budget. That would bring state support for the museum, which has missed one deadline after another for starting construction, to more than $200,000.

Gerald A. Foster, who has been identified as the "scholar in residence" at the museum and is the husband of the executive director, wrote a letter to the editor last month referring to the "racist diatribes" of the newspaper. In objecting to an editorial cartoon on the museum and the paper's coverage generally, he criticized "pathetic, malicious, small-minded people."

That's an inflammatory, unfair and inaccurate accusation against journalists and others at The Free Lance-Star who have conducted themselves with professionalism and civility.

So we don't know what lies ahead for the U.S. National Slavery Museum. Neither do a number of political and business leaders in the area. Neither does the public.

Rather than releasing information to the paper and our Web site to cultivate community support and to keep the public in the loop, the slavery museum has been closing the door in our face.

We will continue to try to pry it open.

http://www.fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2008/022008/02202008/356885


Eric

[Emmanuel Dabney]

This lack of knowledge about what's going (combined with a host of other issues beyond the museum) is what is barring people from opening their wallets, mine included.

I need to know that there will be a fair and accurate representation of the lives of enslaved people, their owners, abolitionists, and others in a variety of formats to reach a large audience. Until I see that in some way, I can't give my money there.

[Emmanuel Dabney]

Kudos for exposing slavery museum mess
February 28, 2008 12:15 am

Kudos for exposing slavery museum mess
I'd like to commend Ed Jones for bringing to light the secretive world of the U.S. National Slavery Museum ["Information on slavery museum hard to get," Feb. 20].

For what was promised to be a serious institution on the study of slavery in the United States and an economic boom to the Fredericksburg region, it has now become a sideshow spectacle of ridiculous proportions.

Doug Wilder's dream, first announced in 2000, is nowhere near fruition in 2008. For all the hoopla of a magnificent facility first proposed in 2002, all there is to show for it is a garden.

Studies have been made with city loans, yet nothing has been released to the public, which funded those same studies.

The true irony of it all is that the museum board chose a place called Celebrate Virginia to build its museum--as if slavery is something to celebrate!

The governor has pro- posed giving the museum $100,000 in 2010 to support its mission. I feel that it would be money wasted in light of all the other sacrifices state agencies are having to make for that same time.

Until the museum can prove itself financially and academically responsible, no state funding should be allotted to it. Those who feel the same way should let their legislators know.

Charles C. Jones

Westmoreland

Online at: http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2008/022008/02282008/358917

[GASharpshooter]

There is a old plantation turned national park near me that has a display in it that says "The slaves called the food they ate 'soul food.'" Too bad the term "soul food" wasn't coined until the 1960's.

[GASharpshooter]

Locating the museum in Fredericksburg really makes me wonder. Why not Washington, DC? Slavery is part of our national heritage, and a shameful mess from the moment the nation was founded. The "peculiar instituton" existed in the United States from 1787 to 1865.

Unless you're a Civil War buff or ameture historian, Fredericksburg is off the beaten path. I lived on Longstreet across from the battlefield as a child, and when my family now travels through VA I practically have to beg my wife to let me take a few moments to get off I-95 and drive into town.

DC is the perfect location. If nothing else, busloads of school kids making the annual treck to our nations capital would get to visit the museum. Putting it in Fredericksburg hides it in plain sight, assuring it will be visited mainly by people visiting the battlefield, who in all probability could answer more questions accurately on the subject of slavery than the entire museum staff $.02

[Dignann]

Actually, in my opinion, Fredericksburg is not a bad place for the museum. With the town's colonial sites and the local battlefields, the area is already a destination for vacation travelers. Situated along the I-95 corridor south of DC, the area captures many visitors traveling between our nation's capital and the Richmond-Williamsburg-Yorktown sites. These are some reasons why the Museum of the Confederacy is considering Spotsylvania County for one its satellite facilities.

That said, the apparent struggles the slavery museum are facing does not bode well for its successful construction and completion.

James - what a coincidence, I currently live on Longstreet across from the battlefield.

Eric

[GASharpshooter]

Do you live in a white two story house with a detached two car garage?

[Emmanuel Dabney]

Slavery museum running short on time to begin work under city permit

Date published: 3/13/2008


By PAMELA GOULD


U.S. National Slavery Museum officials have 4 months to start construction or face the prospect of returning to square one in the city-approval process.

Fredericksburg officials say it would be possible but difficult to begin building the museum within that timeframe, given that approvals are still needed for the structure and site work. The approval process takes at least two months.

Not only do museum officials not have a building permit or a permit for site work, they hadn't submitted requests for them as of yesterday.

More significantly, the museum does not have the money to build the 290,000-square-foot structure.

Cost estimates have doubled over the past four years. Museum officials said the project would cost $100 million when the design was unveiled; The New York Times reported this week that museum officials now place the estimated cost at $200 million.

Museum spokesman Matt Langan told The Free Lance-Star that museum officials are aware of the Aug. 1 construction deadline and are trying to meet it, but he had no date for work to begin.

"I know construction this year is the plan," he said. "I know it is the goal."

A top official with the company developing Celebrate Virginia, where the museum is to be built, said he would not begin work on a project until he had secured funding.

"Without being 100 percent convinced I had the money to pay the bills, I would not start construction," said Jud Honaker, president of commercial development for The Silver Cos.

The museum's most recent tax return listed net assets of nearly $17.7 million, but nearly all of it--roughly $17.4 million--is the value of the land, which was donated by The Silver Cos.

The museum's 2006 tax return showed a 60 percent drop in funds raised over the previous year--from $938,186 to $383,582 in public contributions.

The 2006 total apparently includes about $50,000 that The New York Times report says the museum raised at a June 2006 gala in Washington.

In June 2007, museum Executive Director Vonita Foster said she needed to raise $10 million by the end of September to open a 2,500-square-foot visitors center by the end of this year.

In September, she didn't say whether she had met that goal. This week, Langan was asked about it but did not provide an answer.

The New York Times yesterday quoted museum founder and former Gov. L. Douglas Wilder as saying a $10 million visitors center will be built this year. The report did not say whether the museum had the funds on hand.

The story, however, reports nearly the same total for donations and pledges that The Free Lance-Star was given in July 2005--$50 million.

No pledges have ever been listed on the museum's tax returns, though there is space for that information.

APPROACHING DEADLINES
Wilder, currently mayor of Richmond, chose Fredericksburg as the museum site in 2001. It is planned for a 38-acre parcel along the Rappahannock River within the Fredericksburg portion of the Celebrate Virginia tourism and retail complex.

Last year, Foster said the museum would begin work in 2007 and open in 2009 or 2010.

The Fredericksburg City Council approved a special-use permit for the museum in August 2005. The permit allows the museum to exceed the normal height limit for construction in that part of the city. It was requested to accommodate the mast of a replica slave ship, which would raise the roof to a height of 118 feet, 6 inches.

The resolution stipulates that work must start on the museum by Aug. 1, 2008, or the permit expires.

City Planning Director Ray Ocel said this week that he would need to research whether construction on a visitors center would meet that requirement.

As explained in a museum newsletter, the visitors center appears to be a separate, 2,500-square-foot building.

Costs soaring

Honaker noted that construction costs have skyrocketed since the museum first announced the price tag for its structure. He also noted that in today's economic climate, those costs are volatile, making it challenging for anyone trying to build.

"What cost $200 million three years ago, could easily be a $275 million project today," he said.

Officials with The Silver Cos. said they hope the museum will be built and see it fitting well with the Celebrate Virginia tourism concept, but they aren't relying on it for the project's success.

Earlier this year, Kalahari Resorts announced plans to build a $225 million water park in the complex.

"By pursuing other uses like Kalahari and other things, we're moving on whether the museum happens or not," Honaker said. "We're moving forward and still looking for first-class users that meet the goal of making Celebrate Virginia a tourism attraction."

Under the donation agreement, the land must be used for a museum devoted to African-American heritage, said Chris Hornung, Silver's vice president of planning and engineering. The property can be sold, but the use restriction remains, Hornung said.

Hornung and Honaker said they'd like to see the slavery museum come to fruition.

"We're going forward with or without it, but we would prefer that it was built," Honaker said.

Honaker said he's not concerned about the timing, but sees Wilder as the key to the museum's success.

"I believe once the mayor is not mayor any more and has time to dedicate toward the museum, it should move along," Honaker said.

Pamela Gould: 540/735-1972
Email: pgould@freelancestar.com

You can find the original story and also find the original special use permit granted by the City of Fredericksburg and a timeline of events at: http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2008/032008/03132008/360117/index_html?page=1

[Mike Willey]

The idea of the museum is great. There is definately a use for such a thing.

The problem lies in the tendencies of people to tie slavery into modern politics.


Mike Willey
late of the 49th Ohio and Coffee-coolers

[Dignann]

Slavery museum faces deadline

Slavery museum requests extension of construction deadline

By PAMELA GOULD

The Free Lance-Star [Fredericksburg, Va.]
May 25, 2008

The U.S. National Slavery Museum has asked Fredericksburg officials for a one-year extension of the deadline for beginning construction on the facility.

The museum currently has until Aug. 1 to start building under a special-use permit approved by the City Council two years ago.

The permit was requested because the proposed museum's design calls for a height that exceeds normal limits for that portion of the city. The extra height is to accommodate the mast of a replica slave ship planned as the museum's centerpiece.

Vonita W. Foster, executive director for the museum, sent her request to the city Planning Department on May 16, the same day museum founder L. Douglas Wilder announced he would not seek re-election as Richmond mayor.

Wilder's term expires at the end of the year. The Free Lance-Star requested an interview last week with Wilder, but his press secretary said he was unavailable for the rest of the week.

The newspaper had asked to speak to Wilder about whether he plans to devote all or some of his time to the museum once he finishes his term and whether he still plans to build a visitors center on the museum land by year's end, as he told The New York Times in March.

Wilder, the nation's first black governor and the grandson of slaves, was inspired to build the museum during a trip to Goree Island in West Africa while governor.

In 2001, he chose Fredericksburg as the site for the museum. It is to be built on a 38-acre tract overlooking the Rappahannock River and within the Celebrate Virginia tourism and retail development. The Silver Cos., the developer of Celebrate Virginia, donated the land.

Construction on the museum has not begun and no application for a building permit or site work had been filed as of Friday, according to city officials.

The request for an extension of the special-use permit deadline must be considered by the Planning Com-mission. Its recommendation goes to the City Council for a final decision.

Planning Director Ray Ocel estimated it would take more than a month for the process to run its course.

http://www.fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2008/052008/05252008/381444


Eric

[Dignann]

Former governor makes plea to City Council

Wilder makes pitch for tax exemption

BY EMILY BATTLE

The Free Lance-Star [Fredericksburg, Va.]
June 11, 2008

Former Governor and Richmond Mayor Douglas Wilder came to Fredericksburg last night to ask the City Council to make the 38 acres in Celebrate Virginia on which he hopes to build his proposed United States National Slavery Museum exempt from city real estate taxes.

The exemption would cost the city $42,745 a year. It would be valid for three years.

"I know cities need money," Wilder said at the beginning of his remarks to the council.

He went on to say that the country needs his proposed museum to accurately and completely tell the story of slavery in America and said the tax exemption would help the museum get built faster.

"Either you want the museum here or you don't," Wilder said. "Clearly, paying the kinds of monies we would have to pay [in real estate taxes] wouldn't help us in that direction."

In a June 4 letter to the city asking for the exemption, museum Executive Director Vonita Foster wrote that the museum hopes to start construction within a year if the exemption is granted.

Foster asked that the exemption be retroactive to 2002.

But last night, Wilder didn't want to make any promises about when construction might start.

"I can't guarantee that we will open anything this year. I can't guarantee we will build anything," Wilder said. "But I will guarantee you between now and the next time we speak that you will see something going up on that site."

He acknowledged that his time commitments as Richmond's mayor have made it hard for him to make progress toward the museum's $200 million fundraising goal.

The museum's most recent tax return listed assets of $17.7 million, but nearly all of it--roughly $17.4 million--is the value of the land, which was donated by the Silver Cos.

The land is assessed on the city books at $7.6 million.

"All we need to build is money," Wilder said.

He said previous corporate pledges have been cut as the economy has suffered. He said the city's tax exemption could help keep the project moving.

"I don't believe anybody's going to go broke because of it," Wilder said. "If we are successful, just consider what those revenues are going to look like."

While Wilder and most of the other seven speakers who addressed last night's public hearing focused on the need for the museum and the importance of the city's partnership with it, the tax exemption is primarily a legal question.

City Manager Phillip Rodenberg has recommended that the council only grant an exemption for the portion of the property the museum uses now.

That would be the .29 acres on which the museum operates its Spirit of Freedom garden. The city calculated the value of taxes on that portion of the property as $327 a year.

As for the rest of the property, Rodenberg wrote, "It is the use of property which qualifies it for tax exempt status, and this property is not currently in use."

Local attorney Charlie Payne, who is representing the museum, disagreed.

He pointed to a state code section that says that "property of any nonprofit corporation organized to establish and maintain a museum" shall be exempt from taxes.

He also criticized Rodenberg for asking the council to act on his narrowed-down proposal to exempt only the garden, instead of the museum's original request for the whole property.

Council members tabled the request.

Councilman Matt Kelly said that while many of the speakers at the hearing noted a need for the city to partner with the museum, he wants to see more of an effort from the museum to communicate with Fredericksburg.

"There have been a few meetings with regards to this project, but none with the community as a whole," he said.

Vice Mayor Kerry Devine said she supports the museum's mission, but "I am struggling with the fact that it's been six years and we have yet to see further movement on that plan."

Council will consider the museum's request at its June 24 meeting.

"This issue is about property use," Devine said. "Not politics, not race, not sentiments, but property use and tax-exempt status."

Also last night, the council approved a $76.5 million budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1. The budget includes a 3-cent hike in the real estate tax rate, taking it from 53 to 56 cents per $100 of value.

http://www.fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2008/062008/06112008/386676/index_html?page=1


Eric

[Dignann]

Slavery Museum releases donor list

U.S. National Slavery Museum releases list of donors

By PAMELA GOULD

The Free Lance-Star [Fredericksburg, Va.]
June 17, 2008

Comedian Bill Cosby, The Silver Cos. and its chief executive officer are listed as million-dollar donors to the U.S. National Slavery Museum.

Six days after museum founder L. Douglas Wilder appeared before the Fredericksburg City Council asking that the museum be exempt from real-estate taxes, the museum released a list of its donors yesterday.

At the top of the list, in the category of gifts of $1 million and above, are three entries: The Silver Cos., Silver CEO Larry Silver, and William and Camille Cosby.

The next category, for gifts of $100,000 to $999,999, has four entries: Cosby, Larry Silver, Wachovia and Philip Morris USA.

Shiloh (Old Site) Baptist Church and Pei Partnership Architects are among 10 listed as having given between $10,000 and $99,999.

Lawrence Davies, Shiloh's pastor, a former Fredericksburg mayor and a museum board member, said his church gave $10,000 to the museum in support of the story it plans to tell.

"We felt that we wanted to support the idea of a museum that helped to set the record straight on slavery and blacks, after that, coming to full citizenship," said Davies, whose congregation is predominantly black.

Museum officials have, in the past, steadfastly avoided providing an open look into the nonprofit's finances. But yesterday morning, the museum distributed an e-mail for its spring/summer 2008 newsletter that included a 17-page list of people and businesses that have contributed gifts and in-kind donations through 2007.

Previously, museum officials said they had received $50 million in cash and pledges. But, last week, Wilder said corporate pledges fell as the economy faltered.

He cited financial constraints as a reason the museum is seeking a tax exemption.

Councilman Matt Kelly said the donor information is a "good first step" in learning more about the museum, but it falls short of what he needs to make decisions about it, including whether to support an exemption.

Kelly said he is interested in knowing how involved Wilder will be with the museum once his term as Richmond mayor ends this year. He said he also wants to be kept updated on the museum's progress.

"This is a project of a magnitude that requires very close cooperation between the city and slavery museum, and we're not there yet," he said yesterday.

Last week, the council expressed interest in having more information about the museum's plans and progress before deciding whether to grant Wilder's request to exempt the land on which he hopes to build the museum from city real-estate taxes.

If approved, the exemption would be for $42,745 a year for three years.

Vice Mayor Kerry Devine, whose name was listed among those having given "under $100," expressed concern at last week's meeting that six years had passed with no progress on the structure.

Attempts to reach the museum's spokesman were unsuccessful yesterday.

The Silver Cos. donated the 38 acres on which the museum is to be built. The museum's most recent tax return listed assets of $17.7 million, roughly $17.4 million of which is the value of the land.

The museum is to be built within the Fredericksburg portion of the Celebrate Virginia tourism and retail development.

Cosby serves on the museum board. In September 2004, he announced that he would give the museum proceeds from 10 of his concerts, a donation he then estimated could total $20 million.

C.C. Pei, of Pei Partnership Architects in New York, designed the museum.

Last week, Wilder said he couldn't guarantee anything would open on the site this year. Deadlines for opening have repeatedly been pushed back since the former Virginia governor announced Fredericksburg as the site of the museum in 2001.

Last month, museum Executive Director Vonita Foster requested a one-year extension to begin construction. Without an extension, the museum's special-use permit to build a structure taller than normally allowed at the site expires Aug. 1.

http://www.fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2008/062008/06172008/387988/index_html?page=1


Eric

[Dale Beasley]

I have no doubt that if this project gets off and the reality of it comes true...Emmanuel Dabney would be the man to run it.

I had the chance to stop at Petersburg Military Park the other day while coming from a Medical Staff Meeting. By chance Ranger Dabney was giving a tour. My troops were very interested in what Mr. Dabney had to say, and he did a top shelf presentation.

BTW, Emmanuel SPC Dorsey wants a date.

[Dignann]

Slavery Museum cites state exemption

Nonprofit tax exemptions debated

BY EMILY BATTLE

The Free Lance-Star [Fredericksburg, Va.]
June 22, 2008

Many of the debates Fredericksburg's City Council members have had about the U.S. National Slavery Museum have focused on the museum's potential benefit to the city's economy and the need to tell the story of one of the darkest periods in American history.

But when council members sit down on Tuesday to consider the museum's request for a real-estate tax exemption, their discussion will likely be steeped in complex legal arguments.

City Manager Phillip Rodenberg has said the museum's 38 acres aren't eligible for a tax exemption because the museum is not using all of the land, and hasn't filed any documents to start construction on the land.

A city ordinance says Fredericksburg can grant exemptions to any nonprofit organization "that uses such property solely" for a qualifying purpose.

Rodenberg recommended that the council grant an exemption on the 0.29 acre on which the museum operates its Spirit of Freedom Garden. That would be worth $327 a year. He said further exemptions could be considered as the museum develops more of the land.

Local attorney Charlie Payne, who is representing the Slavery Museum in its request, said he thinks the city doesn't have the power to grant or deny exemptions for any museum.

He said the state has already done that.

"It comes down to whether we're exempt for the purposes of who we are, how we operate and why we're holding that property," Payne said.

STATE LAW PREVAILS?

Payne bases his argument on a state law that says property owned by "any nonprofit corporation organized to establish and maintain a museum" shall be exempt.

The city's ordinance is based on a more recent law that applies to exemptions granted after Jan. 1, 2003.

That same law specifically states that it doesn't apply to exemptions granted before 2003 by the code section Payne references.

Payne argues that that code section effectively grants the Slavery Museum an exemption, and therefore the city doesn't get to make its decision based on whether the museum is currently using the land.

City officials read that provision as simply grandfathering pre-existing exemptions.

Since the Slavery Museum didn't have an exemption when the law was passed, it doesn't get to argue that it has one now.

Under Payne's logic, the Fredericksburg Area Museum wouldn't have to apply for a real-estate tax exemption, and neither would any other nonprofit museum in the commonwealth.

PROCESS VARIES

The process used for nonprofit tax exemptions varies around the state.

In Lynchburg, new museums and other nonprofits seeking exemptions are routed to the city assessor, who asks:

Is the land owned by the nonprofit?

Is it being used for the nonprofit's stated purpose?

Chesterfield County asks nonprofits, including museums, to specify the use of every acre of their property, and reserves the right to grant exemptions for parts of property that are in use and deny them for parts that are not.

Charlottesville adopted a resolution in 1988 saying it would no longer consider tax-exemption requests from nonprofits, including museums. Instead, it asks them to apply for funding through its budget process.

Officials in all of the above localities pointed to these policies when asked what process a nonprofit museum would have to go through to get a real-estate tax exemption.

But Payne thinks the museum can make a case that it should never have been paying taxes to Fredericksburg.

He points to a 2003 attorney general's opinion that says the code section that authorizes Fredericksburg's ordinance is not meant to repeal any pre-existing exemptions.

The land in question was donated to the Slavery Museum in February 2002 for the express purpose of building a museum.

Although the Slavery Museum was paying taxes on the land in 2003, when that state law took effect, Payne says it shouldn't have been.

That's why the museum originally asked that its tax exemption be made retroactive to 2002. Payne said the retroactive portion of the request was withdrawn "as an olive branch, knowing this is a tough budgetary time."

PAVED THE WAY

Mayor Tom Tomzak said he's inclined to follow the city's legal recommendation, but he doesn't think the question of whether to grant the exemption should be construed as an indication of whether Fredericksburg supports the Slavery Museum.

"We do want the museum to be successful," he said. "But we have to go by the city's ordinances and the rule of law."

"This isn't a subjective determination on the part of the council about whether we support the museum," Councilwoman Debby Girvan said.

Vice Mayor Kerry Devine said she thinks the city's past actions--from giving it $1 million to approving a height variance for its planned building--show strong support for the museum.

Now, she and other council members would like to see the museum do more to communicate with the city and make progress on its plans.

"We have paved the way for the Slavery Museum," Devine said. "Now, we'd like to see it."

http://www.fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2008/062008/06222008/388334


Eric

[Eric Tipton]

The Freedom Center here in Cincinnati sounds vaguely similar in concept and attendance has been sparse at best. Personally, I loved the idea, since Cincinnati and surrounding areas were so integral to the underground railroad movement, but the building itself, in my opinion, was too large and poorly-designed... and I always thought that it should have been a more period structure.

This center has been debated since its inception. I have visited and was not impressed. Now, they are trying to make this into the typical "conservatives vs. liberals" debate and the politicians won't aknowledge that perhaps this wasn't done the way it should have been. They are talking around the issue and now we have a very large, and (largely) unused structure on our riverfront. To read more about this project - several years after the fact, click here (http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080613/NEWS0108/306130054/1056/COL02).

[Dignann]

Council Denies Exemption

Fredericksburg officials consider tax-exemption request from Slavery Museum

BY EMILY BATTLE

The Free Lance-Star [Fredericksburg, Va.]
June 25, 2008

The U.S. National Slavery Museum won't qualify for exemption from city real estate taxes until it starts building on the 38 acres it owns in Celebrate Virginia.

That's the message the Fredericksburg City Council sent with a 6-1 vote last night denying the museum's request for a tax exemption. Councilman Hashmel Turner cast the only vote against denying the exemption.

The museum, through attorney Charlie Payne, continues to argue that it qualifies for exemption not based on whether it is using the property, but because state law puts organizations that are set up to establish museums in a special category of exempt entities.

Payne said that means the Slavery Museum shouldn't have to start using its land before it becomes exempt.

The city and the museum are at odds over when this "use test" applies.

City Manager Phillip Rodenberg had suggested the city could grant an exemption on the tiny slice of property on which the museum operates its Spirit of Freedom Garden.

But after the museum asked for an up-or-down vote on its request for the full property, council denied it last night.

The legal debate also raised questions about the city's relationship with the museum.

Vice Mayor Kerry Devine said that since former governor and museum founder L. Douglas Wilder first announced that he planned to build the museum in Fredericksburg, the council had approved a $1 million gift, a height variance for the building and generally been supportive.

As Payne harped on the fact that the exemption should be granted solely because of the group's classification as a museum, Devine said, "My question is where is the museum? ... This community deserves more of an answer than, 'We're still working on it.'"

Museum Executive Director Vonita Foster suggested the city needed to be more patient.

"Building a museum is very expensive. Very expensive. This is a national museum. It is not a city museum, it is a national museum," Foster said. "I don't understand with the economy the way it is, why you don't understand why we can't begin construction."

Turner pointed to the agreement with which the Silver Cos. gave the land to the museum, which restricted its use for that purpose.

"The property is set aside for the museum, so nothing else is to be built there," he said. "The sole use of that property will be for the museum."

At last night's meeting, the council granted a roughly $2,000-a-year exemption to New Vision, a transitional home for female ex-offenders.

City staff had recommended against that exemption because the city code says any property used as a dwelling or other "personal use" can't be exempt. Council members said this isn't really a "personal" dwelling, it's institutional housing.

The council also took the second vote necessary to renew a $8,000-a-year exemption for the Fredericksburg Area Museum and Cultural Center.

City officials said this application was different from the Slavery Museum's, because the Area Museum is in the middle of construction on its properties.

Before he voted against the Slavery Museum's request, worth $43,000 a year, Councilman Matt Kelly said, "I am looking forward to the day that we grant a full tax-exempt status to an up-and-running National Slavery Museum. As it currently stands, it does not qualify."

Councilwoman Debby Girvan said that even though her term on council ends June 30, she'd like future councils to look into the exemption issue.

"How many tax exemptions can the city afford?" she asked.

http://www.fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2008/062008/06252008/390244


Eric

[Dignann]

Planners back giving museum extension

The Fredericksburg Planning Commission voted unanimously to recommend approval for the U.S. National Slavery Museum's request for an extension of a special-use permit

BY MEGAN WILLIAMS

The Free Lance-Star [Fredericksburg, Va.]
July 31, 2008

The Fredericksburg Planning Commission voted unanimously yesterday to recommend extending for a year the U.S. National Slavery Museum's Aug. 1 deadline to begin construction.

Though there were questions about why the museum requested just a one-year extension, no one at the meeting commented on it.

"It seems like an awfully short time to get construction under way," said Ray Ocel, city planning director.

During a public hearing meeting earlier this month, no members of the community spoke for or against the extension recommendation.

The museum's deadline to begin construction is part of a special-use permit approved by the council two years ago.

The permit was requested so the museum could exceed the standard 90-foot ceiling limit to accommodate the mast of an 18th-century slave ship replica. The ceiling would need to be 118-feet for the ship to fit.

Vonita W. Foster, the executive director of the museum, submitted an application for an extension of the permit on May 16.

No construction has begun on the museum, planned on 38 acres in Celebrate Virginia South.

The City Council will hold a public hearing before deciding on whether to approve the extension.

http://www.fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2008/072008/07312008/399273


Eric

[Dignann]

Slavery museum revenue, spending increased in 2007

U.S. National Slavery Museum tax return shows organization in the black for 2007 but raised less than $1 million

BY PAMELA GOULD

The Free Lance-Star [Fredericksburg, Va.]
November 22, 2008

The U.S. National Slavery Museum raised 50 percent more money in 2007 than in 2006 and ended the year in the black--a reversal from 2006, according to the nonprofit's latest tax return.

However, despite raising $577, 173 and earning $4,567 in interest on its investments, museum expenses for 2007 consumed all but $54,690 of the year's income, the report shows.

Meanwhile, the city revenue commissioner says the museum owes more than $23,000 in overdue real-estate taxes and penalties.

On its tax return, the museum reported an end-of-year balance of $17.6 million, $17.5 million of which was the value of the land the museum was given to build on.

In 2002, the Silver Cos. donated 38 acres within its Celebrate Virginia tourism and retail complex in Fredericksburg for the museum after former Gov. L. Douglas Wilder chose the city as the site for the museum.

The land's value depreciated $9,540 in 2007, according to the report. However, that was offset by unspecified art in the museum's possession, which was valued at $9,000.

Wilder selected Fredericksburg over Jamestown and Richmond as the site for the museum he has envisioned since a visit to Goree Island in West Africa while governor. Wilder finishes his term as mayor of Richmond at year's end.

Dates for the museum to open have repeatedly been pushed back. The most recent estimate came in June 2007, when Executive Director Vonita W. Foster said she hoped for a "soft opening" sometime this year and an official opening in 2009 or 2010.

Foster said at the time that she needed to raise $10 million by fall of 2007 to open a portion of the museum this year. The tax return shows less than $1 million was raised for the entire year.

Construction has not begun nor have city officials received any documents to begin the process of getting approval to start work.

"This is bad times, I know. It's probably bad times to raise money, but I would like to know something," said Building and Development Services Director Stephen Smallwood.

In an odd quirk, a travel story recently appeared in more than one online publication suggesting the museum is open and would make an excellent stop for visitors to the Fredericksburg area.

CITY TAXES OVERDUE

Wilder and Foster have said they had garnered about $50 million in cash and pledges toward constructing a roughly $150 million museum. However, no pledges have ever been listed on the museum's tax returns although there is space to do that.

The only thing standing so far is a garden on the edge of the museum site.

Attempts to speak to Wilder this week were unsuccessful. Foster was not in her office in Central Park during visits there three days this week and once last week.

A public relations firm that had represented the museum said this week that it no longer does so.

In September, the City Council approved Foster's request to extend by one year the deadline to begin construction or restart the permitting process to build a structure taller than is generally allowed at its site.

In October, Commissioner of Revenue Lois B. Jacob denied the museum's request for an exemption from paying real-estate taxes on the land.

That meant the museum owed $21,372.40 on Monday for the first half of its fiscal 2009 real-estate tax bill. It had not been paid as of yesterday, and the museum had accrued $2,136.86 in penalties, according to the city treasurer's office.

In her Oct. 24 letter to museum attorney Charles Payne, Jacob noted that while the slavery museum can be categorized as a nonprofit, Payne provided nothing to show it was operating as a museum or would be doing so in the near future.

"The mere fact that the Taxpayer's name includes the word 'museum,' or that it refers to itself as a museum does not make it a museum," Jacob wrote to Payne.

In making her decision on its tax status, Jacob requested but did not receive documentation that the land would be "developed as a museum in a reasonable time."

She asked for documents showing that construction plans were in place or that finances did not yet allow them.

Without any of that information, she ruled against the museum.

"I received no response to my Aug. 7 and Sept. 11 requests for information that would substantiate the Taxpayer's claim that the property will be developed as a museum within a reasonable amount of time," Jacob wrote. "I would have considered any number of construction or financial documents, including but not limited to a construction contract, project schedule, project budget, and documents establishing the Taxpayer's financial ability to commence construction, but I received no such documentation.

"In fact, I received no reply at all to these requests for information."

THE COST OF FUNDRAISING

The proposed museum's federal tax return is a public document because it is a nonprofit organization. Museum assistant Debra Daniels provided a copy of the return to the newspaper this week, upon request, as provided by law. The deadline for filing the report was Monday.

Of the $527,050 in expenses the museum listed for 2007, the cost of fundraising accounted for $61,910, or 11.7 percent. Of that total, $12,750 was the portion of Foster's $85,000 salary designated toward that effort.

Other expenses for the year included another $66,216 for wages. The museum reported having three employees in 2007.

Expenses fall into three broad categories: fundraising, management and program services.

Program services accounted for $288,331 and included things such as supplies, postage, publications and travel.

Management included salaries, payroll taxes, accounting fees and insurance.

The tax return does not list who gave the $577,173 in contributions to the museum in 2007. However, Philip Morris USA announced in March 2007 that it was making a $200,000 donation.

http://www.fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2008/112008/11222008/426662


Eric

[Dignann]

Slavery museum's future in doubt

Overdue taxes and apparent departure of director raise questions about slavery museum's status

BY PAMELA GOULD

The Free Lance-Star [Fredericksburg, Va.
February 21, 2009

Eight months ago, then-Richmond Mayor L. Douglas Wilder visited Fredericksburg to plead with City Council to give tax-exempt status to the slavery museum he announced for Celebrate Virginia seven years earlier.

He acknowledged that his duties as mayor of Richmond had hindered the project's progress. Construction hasn't begun and building permits have never been sought.

"One of the reasons we haven't gone further is speaking to you now--me," Wilder told the council on June 10.

But the former governor and grandson of slaves stressed that financing the U.S. National Slavery Museum had been a major challenge and that the burden of paying taxes on the museum's 38-acre property was a weight the city could lift if it wanted the project.

"Either you want the museum here or you don't," Wilder told the Fredericksburg council. "Clearly, paying the kind of monies that we'd have to pay wouldn't help us in that direction."

But council was not swayed.

Two weeks later, in a 6-1 vote with Councilman Hashmel Turner dissenting, the council denied Wilder's request.

The next tax bill, due in November, went unpaid.

As of this week, with pen-alty and interest added, the museum owed $24,093.02, according to the city treasurer's office.

Now, two months after Wilder's mayoral term ended, no Fredericksburg official has seen or heard from him.

Councilman Turner's attempts to reach him for information have been unsuccessful.

Former Fredericksburg Mayor Lawrence Davies is uncertain whether he remains on the museum board.

And every indication suggests that the museum's small staff--including Executive Director Vonita Foster--is gone.

EMPTY OFFICES

The last certain sighting of Foster at the museum offices in the Uptown section of Central Park was in November.

People who work near the museum's leased space on the second floor of 1320 Central Park Boulevard--doors labeled 244, 250 and 251--say they've seen no one in December, January or this month.

The museum never had much staff beyond Foster and one assistant.

The Free Lance-Star has found no one during repeated visits to the office. The paper has left voice-mail messages for Foster at the museum offices and on her home number, and has sent e-mails to her museum account and a personal account but has never received any response.

This week, calls to museum offices were met by a recording that said: "The number you have reached is arranged for outgoing calls only."

Word circulating through the city is that Foster resigned from her $85,000 position.

Wilder, who now has an office at the L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs at Virginia Commonwealth University, has not responded to messages left with his assistant, Ruth Jones.

Jones said she couldn't help the newspaper get in touch with Foster. "I really don't have any forwarding information for her," Jones said.

Asked whether Wilder planned to fill Foster's position, Jones said the newspaper "would need to get that information from the governor."

LAND IN JEOPARDY?

City Treasurer G.M. Haney said his office is "aggressive" about collecting taxes and will use whatever tools he needs to collect the funds.

That includes taking money from bank accounts and, ultimately, seizing property and selling it.

The museum, like any individual or business, has two years to get its taxes paid or risks having the property sold.

Museum officials failed to make a payment due Nov. 15, and its next payment of $21,372.40 comes due May 15.

The clock on the two-year period to pay or face the sale of the land started ticking when the museum failed to make its last payment by Nov. 15.

The Silver Cos. donated 38 acres for the museum within the Celebrate Virginia South project, adjacent to Interstate 95 and overlooking the Rappahannock River. Conditions of the land transfer require that it be used for a museum dedicated to African-American heritage, a Silver Cos. official said.

Scott Little, project manager for Celebrate Virginia South, said an attorney for the Silver Cos. said the restriction on the land's use would convey with the land if it were sold.

He said the company has no plans to pay the taxes for the nonprofit museum, and would not act if a sale of the land looked imminent.

"We would not step in the way of that," Little said.

CITY CHATTER

For the slavery museum to come to fruition, communication would be required with various offices in City Hall.

But no one in any of the offices the museum would need to work with to get the facility built has heard anything apart from reports of Foster's absence.

The same is true for the city economic development and tourism staff.

"We're interested and we're concerned but we're just not getting information," said acting economic development director Karen Hedelt, who is the city's chief tourism official.

City Manager Phil Rodenberg said the project could move forward with someone besides Foster, but said he was unaware of Wilder's plans.

He said the project is a significant one for the city, and if it wasn't going forward, steps would need to begin to seek out another attraction.

He said it had been "a key component of Celebrate Virginia" and had been envisioned as an "icon to draw people off the interstate."

Architect C.C. Pei of New York designed the museum. It includes a full-scale replica slave ship enclosed in a glass-walled structure that would be visible from the highway.

Hedelt said the apparent departure of Foster and the museum's tax situation cause her concern about the project's future.

She said the museum was viewed as "a springboard" for other development and was expected to impact tourism throughout the area.

"They held out the prospect of some pretty significant marketing that we thought could benefit the whole region," Hedelt said.

Councilman Turner was concerned about Foster's apparent departure.

"I would like to know why and if there is someone else that's going to take her place," he said.

He said he contacted Wilder weeks ago and hadn't gotten a response.

"I was waiting for Mayor Wilder to be back in touch with us and give us an update," he said. "We'll have some questions for him now."

Fredericksburg Mayor Tom Tomzak stressed his longtime support for the museum and his current concern about the lack of information on the project's status.

"I'm certainly disappointed the museum has not seen fit to communicate with the council that clearly supported them," he said.

With the current status, he expressed concerns about the museum's future.

"It's not an encouraging sign, and I hope the project is not finished," he said.

http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2009/022009/02212009/446477/index_html?page=1


Eric

[Emmanuel Dabney]

I think the short message that I can say is that this remains very disappointing. I will say however that it took a longer time for the Holocaust Museum to get finished in D.C.; all the same this project (like others) has been too secretive. I'm afraid the current economic downturn will further hinder this museum particularly as there has not been construction attempted.

[Emmanuel Dabney]

Slavery museum eyed in capital?

BY CHELYEN DAVIS


RICHMOND--

With the slavery museum's future in Fredericksburg in doubt, Richmond Del. Delores McQuinn says she's willing to do whatever it takes to move the potential museum to Richmond.

"I would do whatever I can to secure the funds to have it here," McQuinn said.

McQuinn was chosen in a special election earlier this year to replace Dwight Jones, who became Richmond's mayor. She said she is due to meet with Jones next week and plans to talk to him about her idea.

"I've talked to so many people about it," she said. "People would love to have it here."

McQuinn thinks Richmond is a better location, given the city's history and historical sites. Those sites include Lumpkin's Jail, once a well-known slave jail, and later a school for newly freed slaves.

"It's the right place for the slavery museum, just because of the history of Richmond," McQuinn said. "What was authentic here I think it's the right place."

A former Richmond councilwoman, McQuinn said she pushed the then-Mayor Doug Wilder to locate the slavery museum in Richmond from the beginning.

But Wilder chose Fredericksburg.

However, no one in Fredericksburg seems to have heard from Wilder, nor his staff, in several months. Taxes on the land slated for the museum have gone unpaid since November, construction hasn't begun, and building permits have never been sought for the museum's 38-acre property in Celebrate Virginia.

And every indication suggests that the museum's small staff--including Executive Director Vonita Foster--is gone.

People who work near the museum's leased space in Central Park say they've seen no one in months.

Calls to museum offices were met by a recording that said: "The number you have reached is arranged for outgoing calls only."

Museum officials failed to make a tax payment due Nov. 15, and its next bill of $21,372.40 comes due May 15.


Chelyen Davis: 804/782-9362
Email: cdavis@freelancestar.com


Date published: 2/27/2009

Online at: http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2009/022009/02272009/449033

[ley74]

Em:

All I see is opportunity here. Wonder what will happen to the F'Burg land?

[Dignann]

Slavery museum failed to file state registration

Slavery Museum's registration to solicit donations lapsed in May 2008

BY EMILY BATTLE

The Free Lance-Star [Fredericksburg, Va.]
February 28, 2009

Last June, former Richmond Mayor L. Douglas Wilder told Fredericksburg's City Council that even though his U.S. National Slavery Museum had a tough fundraising goal ahead of it, he was confident he could meet the challenge.

"We'll still be knocking on the doors of the corporate people," Wilder said.

But it turns out that at the time, the museum had allowed its state registration to raise charitable contributions to expire.

The registration expired in May 2008, according to information available on the state Office of Consumer Affairs Web site.

The office granted an extension until August of last year, but to this day the museum's registration to raise funds remains lapsed, even though the museum continues to solicit funds via its Web site.

Officials with the Office of Consumer Affairs were not available yesterday to comment.

State law requires that any organization that plans to solicit charitable contributions make a yearly filing, including basic information about the group as well as its tax return and audited balance sheets.

The lapsed filing is just one more sign that the museum appears to have stopped operations.

Museum Executive Director Vonita Foster has not been seen in the museum's offices in Central Park since November. She has not responded to correspondence or phone calls from this and other media outlets--or from the Office of Consumer Affairs regarding the group's registration to solicit donations.

Wilder also has not responded to media inquiries, and Fredericksburg officials who have tried to contact him have not been successful.

Anyone who tries to call the museum is greeted by a message that says the number has been arranged for outgoing calls only.

Meanwhile, the museum owes more than $24,000 in overdue taxes and penalties on the 38 acres it owns in Celebrate Virginia.

That land--which is in a commercial area city officials consider crucial to Fredericksburg's future financial health--was donated to the museum in 2001 by the Silver Cos. Silver officials also have said they have had no contact with Wilder or others associated with the museum.

http://www.fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2009/022009/02282009/449168


Eric

[Dignann]

Wilder: Slavery museum will stay

Wilder says museum will be built and in Fredericksburg

BY PAMELA GOULD AND EMILY BATTLE

The Free Lance-Star [Fredericksburg, Va.]
March 12, 2009

Former Richmond Mayor L. Douglas Wilder said this week that the U.S. National Slavery Museum he envisioned while governor will be built and won't be changing locations.

"The Museum Board is committed to its stated and moral obligations to the Fredericksburg community and its legal representatives," Wilder said in an online statement posted Wednesday.

But he stated that a lack of funds continues to delay progress on the project.

Yesterday, a representative for Wilder told the Virginia Office of Consumer Affairs that by next Friday the museum will file documentation to re-establish its registration to solicit charitable contributions, according to a state spokeswoman.

The slavery museum allowed that registration to lapse last summer, but its Web site continues to solicit funds. State law requires registration by all entities that solicit contributions.

Wilder said Wednesday in a statement posted on a Richmond-based blog and in an interview with NBC affiliate WWBT-TV in Richmond that he has no plans to move his dream facility to the state capital, as some have suggested.

Wilder did not respond yesterday to a message left with his assistant by The Free Lance-Star. He currently works out of an office at the L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs at Virginia Commonwealth University.

In the televised interview, Wilder said he wanted to "make clear" that he had not scrapped his plans to build the museum in Fredericksburg.

"We are there. We intend to stay there. We intend to build there," he said.

However, the slavery museum offices in Central Park are no longer staffed, the phone line has been disconnected, and the museum owes the city of Fredericksburg $24,288.89 in back taxes and interest. The museum has another bill for $21,372.40 due May 15.

Fredericksburg Mayor Tom Tomzak said he has not heard from Wilder since he visited the city last spring to ask for a real-estate tax exemption.

"It's encouraging to hear that he still wants to put the museum here, but he's not talked to the city at all," Tomzak said.

Wilder said last spring and repeated in this week's statements that the economy has severely hurt his ability to raise funds to build the museum.

Over the past several weeks, news outlets have reported that various Richmond officials are interested in seeing the slavery museum built there. Those reports followed a Feb. 21 article in The Free Lance-Star stating that the museum's executive director was apparently gone, the museum was behind in its tax payments and city officials were wondering about its fate.

City Treasurer G.M. Haney has said he will defer to the City Council in working to collect the outstanding taxes. If the taxes remain unpaid for two years, however, he will take steps to sell the land to recover them.

Tomzak said the city wasn't moving forward on the tax issue for now and wasn't sure what it might do in the future.

"Until we have more contact with the museum, it's really difficult to comment on this," he said.

City Councilman Hashmel Turner said he never got a response from Wilder to his request for information but was pleased by reports that the former governor still plans to build in Fredericksburg.

"I'm definitely glad because the U.S. National Slavery Museum is part of the equation for our Celebrate Virginia build-out," Turner said. "A lot of things have been set in motion with the thought the U.S. National Slavery Museum would be up and running."

--------------------------------------------

In 2001, former Richmond Mayor L. Douglas Wilder announced plans to build the museum in Fredericksburg on 38 acres bordered by Interstate 95 and the Rappahannock River. The Silver Cos. donated the land, which sits within its Celebrate Virginia project.

Dates to open the museum--or at least part of it--have continually been pushed back because of a lack of funds. The latest cost estimate for the project was $200 million.

http://www.fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2009/032009/03132009/451987/index_html?page=1


Eric

[Emmanuel Dabney]

Slavery museum project re-registers for permit to solicit donations

By Will Jones

Published: March 31, 2009

The U.S. National Slavery Museum might still be planned for Fredericksburg, but it's based in Richmond.

The project led by former Richmond Mayor L. Douglas Wilder listed a local post office box and phone number as contact information in a recent filing with the Virginia Office of Consumer Affairs.

The registration form, received March 23 and pending approval, is supposed to be filed annually for the museum to legally seek contributions in Virginia. The group's prior filing expired Aug. 15 and listed the group as based in Fredericksburg.

Wilder, a distinguished professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, has for weeks not returned calls seeking information on the museum's status.

Last week, a call to the number listed with the state was answered by Ruth M. Jones, Wilder's executive assistant at VCU. She answered, "hello," without immediately identifying herself with the slavery museum. She offered to pass a message to Wilder that was not returned.

The annual registration form was signed by Jones as the museum's secretary and by Wilder as its executive director, although he is listed elsewhere as chairman of the board of directors.

The museum's Web site continues to list the museum's office in Fredericksburg and Vonita W. Foster as its executive director.

On the state registration form, only Jones and Wilder are listed in the section for officers, directors and salaried executive officers. The form submitted in late 2007 was signed by Wilder and Foster, and it also listed the museum's 10-member board of directors.

In its recent filing, the museum showed $577,173 in contributions and $61,910 in fundraising expenses in 2007.

In a blog post this month, Wilder acknowledged fundraising difficulties but offered no insight on the museum project. He said the museum's board is committed "to its stated and moral obligations" to building the museum in Fredericksburg despite interest among some officials in Richmond in having the project or something similar in Shockoe Bottom.

"Our architects, engineers, planners and contractors have brought us to the point of the eventual construction of the first phases, to accompany the Freedom Garden there on display," Wilder said, referring to the museum's 38-acre site on the Rappahannock River. "The only thing that delays us is the next funding."

The Rev. Lawrence A. Davies, a former Fredericksburg mayor who has served on the museum's board of directors, said he expected to hear something from Wilder after Wilder was interviewed by WWBT about two weeks ago. Davies said yesterday he hasn't heard anything.

"We just don't know what's going on," he said.

Online at: http://www.timesdispatch.com/rtd/news/local/article/SLAV31_20090330-223316/244780/

[Dignann]

Pulse weak on Wilder plan

Signs of life hard to find for slavery museum former governor envisioned for Fredericksburg

The Free Lance-Star [Fredericksburg, Va.]
December 5, 2009

By EMILY BATTLE AND PAMELA GOULD

At what point is it time for an obituary?

Signs of life are hard to detect for the U.S. National Slavery Museum former Gov. L. Douglas Wilder conceived while in office more than a decade ago and that he said earlier this year would be revived and still take residence in Fredericksburg's Celebrate Virginia. Efforts to contact Wilder this week were unsuccessful.

The Free Lance-Star checked the museum's vital signs this week and found--at most--a thready pulse.

he U.S. National Slavery Museum's name has been removed from the door of its former offices at the Central Park executive office suites.

The office of former Executive Director Vonita W. Foster is vacant.

The staff, which never exceeded four people, is gone.

The only contact now is Wilder's assistant, who oversees his office at the L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond.

Fredericksburg officials have not heard a sound from the museum since Wilder's failed bid to make the museum exempt from property taxes in 2008.

The museum's approval to build a structure taller than normal has expired.

The museum's telephone line was disconnected earlier this year.

The museum's Web sites--usnsm.org and usnationalslav erymuseum.org--are defunct.

As recently as last spring, the site continued encouraging visitors to make donations. And for several months, usnational slaverymuseum.org contained no content, but last month someone posted a Wordpress blog on the Web domain that contains nothing but the word "museum."

Usnsm.org, now registered to a California woman, displays a random array of content, on everything from slavery and the Civil War to Japanese animation. Its home page includes text referring to a 2006 groundbreaking for the museum.

This week, the Virginia Welcome Center on Interstate 95 in Fredericksburg handed out its last slavery museum brochure.

As an employee noted, it's not actually a brochure --because the museum doesn't exist--but a document for soliciting money.

But soliciting money is something the museum is not legally authorized to do in Virginia.

The museum allowed its registration with the state's Office of Consumer Affairs--required of all charities that solicit money--to lapse in the summer of 2008.

After two newspapers reported in March that the museum could not legally solicit funds, Wilder--or someone on his behalf--told the Office of Consumer Affairs that the group would file the documents to renew its registration.

This week, a Consumer Affairs spokeswoman said the museum filed information in March, but didn't include an up-to-date federal tax return. The state's request for more information was never answered, and the spokeswoman said her office would send another letter this week.

The museum is behind in paying its city real estate taxes and apparently hasn't filed its federal tax return as required by law.

The museum owes the city of Fredericksburg $79,718.02 in taxes on the 38 acres it received from the Silver Cos. in the Celebrate Virginia tourism campus.

That figure includes the penalty and interest for payments that remain unpaid from November 2008, May 2009 and November 2009, according to the city treasurer's office.

State law gives the city the power to put the land up for sale after the end of a year in which real estate taxes have been past due for two years or more. In this case, if the museum does not pay what it owes now, the city treasurer would be able to initiate the sale process in January 2011.

The museum's 2008 federal tax return was due by Nov. 15. Wilder's office did not produce a copy of the return this week.

Federal guidelines require non-profits with assets greater than $2.5 million to file annually. The museum's land is valued at more than $17 million.

A garden with an 8-foot-tall sculpture of a slave looking skyward as he breaks free from his shackles is the only thing that has risen from the museum site since the Silver Cos. donated the land seven years ago.

Today, the garden lies untended, with weeds cropping up, ornamental grasses obscuring a bench and at least one figure representing the slaves' native land having disappeared.

http://www.fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2009/122009/12052009/511342


Eric

[huntdaw]

Sounds like a pretty dead idea to me. Now what happens to the money that was donated in good faith? For that matter, where is the money that was donated? Can the city seize it for payment of taxes? Can some of it be sent back to its donors? What a mess!

Speaking of money, it seems to me that it was very unprofessional and misleading for the welcome center to be handing out brochures soliciting donations for an organization that was not legally allowed to collect them. That's almost like engaging in fraud, misleading people to perhaps throw good money after bad and just add to the unfortunate mess this has become.

Hey and what happened to Cosby's money? According to one of those articles, the organization had collected a little over $600,000, with $577,000 in dontaions. Where's the one million he had committed?

You folks closer to this than I am - did this die from gross mismanagement or was there a little bit of something else going on?

[Emmanuel Dabney]

Michael (et al),

I know I can say in general since the recession began in 2007, donations are down to organizations. However, for an organization to be really successful in collecting money there needs to be support from big money corporations or granting agencies and John/Jane Doe public. Unfortunately this museum lacked that. There are various reasons I'm sure as to why donating never took off the ground beyond the recession.

I do not know what happened but I hope somehow the concept of a slavery museum returns though it may be lost now to the new Smithsonian black history museum. Like it or not, slavery was a huge part of the African and then American born-black past. I am certain more than a significant part of that museum will have something to say on the matter when it is finished.

Still the stories of the lives of millions (for now) will have no particular building and I'm not sure that I've totally bought into that being a major problem. I'd be happier if North, South, East, West recognized the complicity of the American dream and establishment of America with the enslavement (and reprocussions from those experiences) of others. In short I'm saying: the museums, battlefields, historic sites & historic houses need to start telling these stories when they are applicable.

[huntdaw]

I agree Emmanuel - the story needs to be told. It's a shame that an institution that could have dealt with the subject in depth didn't get off the ground. Hopefully, the idea will survive and will come to fruition at some point in the future.

[Emmanuel Dabney]

Wilder Halts Fundraising for Slavery Museum
By WILL JONES
Published: March 4, 2010

Former Gov. L. Douglas Wilder has notified the state that he is no longer raising money for his planned slavery museum in Fredericksburg.

Wilder told the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services in a letter dated last Friday that the U.S. National Slavery Museum had closed its offices and "is not soliciting contributions at this time" because of the weakened economy. But he said he still intends to build the museum in Fredericksburg.

The letter prompted state officials this week to end their review into whether the museum still was seeking donations in violation of the Virginia Solicitation of Contributions Law.

The letter also prevented a news release that would have warned would-be donors that the museum is not registered to solicit money and that contributions "may be used for noncharitable purposes."

J. Michael Wright, the state's manager of regulatory programs, sent Wilder a letter Feb. 18 advising that the news release could be issued based on the department's having heard nothing from the museum after two previous letters.

As part of its standard practices, the department starting looking into the museum's status after project officials did not submit 2008 financial statements last May. Officials assumed the museum still was soliciting because they had not heard otherwise, said Elaine J. Lidholm, a spokeswoman for the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

Wilder, who is chairman of the museum's board of directors, sent a copy of his letter to the Richmond Times-Dispatch this week in response to questions about the museum's delinquent real estate taxes in Fredericksburg.

The tax bill had increased to $81,607 as of yesterday, according to the city treasurer's office. The city could force a sale of the 38-acre property if the amount isn't paid by Dec. 31. A call to Wilder's office at Virginia Commonwealth University yesterday was not returned.
In his letter to the state, Wilder does not address when or whether the real estate taxes will be paid, but he says the museum's inactive status could be temporary.
"As soon as economic conditions improve, the museum will take all necessary and appropriate steps to reopen its offices and resume solicitation of funds," Wilder wrote. "It is the intention of the board to maintain the museum's location in Fredericksburg."

Contact Will Jones at (804) 649-6911 or wjones@timesdispatch.com.

Online at: http://www2.timesdispatch.com/rtd/news/local/article/WILD04_20100303-222806/328262/ß

[Emmanuel Dabney]

In light of the similarness of this article compared with Mr. Jones, I will just direct you to Emily Battle's article: http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2010/032010/03052010/532288

[Emmanuel Dabney]

The latest in this on-going saga...

http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2011/022011/02162011/607641