Slavery Museum: Fundraising and Debates Continues

[Emmanuel Dabney]

Vonita Foster's Editorial to the Free-Lance Star

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/F...2062007/255388

[Dignann]

Re: Slavery Museum: Fundraising and Debates Continues

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]

Re: Slavery Museum: Fundraising and Debates Continues

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]

Re: Slavery Museum: Fundraising and Debates Continues

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/2...1302008/349835

[Johnny Lloyd]

Re: Slavery Museum: Fundraising and Debates Continues

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. ;)

-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]

Re: Slavery Museum: Fundraising and Debates Continues

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]

Re: Slavery Museum: Fundraising and Debates Continues

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]

Re: Slavery Museum: Fundraising and Debates Continues

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/2...2282008/358917

[GASharpshooter]

Re: Slavery Museum: Fundraising and Debates Continues

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]

Re: Slavery Museum: Fundraising and Debates Continues

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]

Re: Slavery Museum: Fundraising and Debates Continues

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]

Re: Slavery Museum: Fundraising and Debates Continues

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

[Emmanuel Dabney]

Re: Slavery Museum: Fundraising and Debates Continues

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/2...ex_html?page=1

[Mike Willey]

Re: Slavery Museum: Fundraising and Debates Continues

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]

Re: Slavery Museum: Fundraising and Debates Continues

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