[VAcourier] Wilder to busy for Oakwood

[Virginia Division SCV Communication List]

Mayor Wilder must be too busy raising money for his project, the 
national slave museum, to take the time to meet with the SCV to finally 
allow us to do some real restoration and improvement to the unmarked 
graves at Oakwood.  Maybe the city can donate the $30,000 they will save 
on maintenance to the slave museum if he would let us do what the 
federal and state governments have already approved. 

Mayor L. Douglas Wilder
email:    askthemayor at ci.richmond.va.us
or:         wilderld at ci.richmond.va.us
fax:  804-646-7987
phone:  804-646-7970
900 E. Broad St.
Room 201
Richmond, VA 23219


Slave museum organizers seek $10 million by fall
By DIONNE WALKER
Associated Press Writer
RICHMOND, Va.
http://www.fredericksburg.com/News/apmethods/apstory?urlfeed=D8QB9HUO0.xml

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."

__

On the Net:

United States National Slavery Museum, 
http://www.usnationalslaverymuseum.org/home.asp



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