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


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

Article found online at: http://www.fredericksburg.com/News/F...9232006/224101

[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/F...9242006/224179


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/F...2192006/244991

[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]

Originally Posted by 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?

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]

Originally Posted by 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.

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.