ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, December 26, 1996 TAG: 9612260071
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: The New York Times
Gov. George Allen of Virginia has revived an old idea: to build a slavery museum in Virginia.
A slavery museum was first proposed in 1993 by Allen's predecessor, Gov. Douglas Wilder; the Virginia General Assembly authorized $100,000 that year for the project. But organizers could not settle on a site for the museum, and the plan languished. This year the state financing reverted to Virginia's coffers.
Earlier this month Allen said he would request new start-up financing for the museum, a proposal that he said the Assembly would consider early next year.
``I'm optimistic that the Assembly will see the wisdom in this proposal,'' Allen said in an interview. ``I just can't see them not approving it.''
The proposal calls for $100,000 to be added to the budget for 1997-98.
The money, if appropriated, would be temporarily held by the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, a Williamsburg organization that already administers two history museums in the Tidewater area.
Wilder said in a telephone interview that the foundation would most likely parcel out the money to Jamestown Slave Museum Corp., a nonprofit group formed in 1994 at Wilder's encouragement.
The former governor, who now teaches public policy at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, said he would donate his services to the group.
His position in the slave museum group has not been determined, but he would spend most of his time raising money for the museum, he said.
Wilder said he hoped the museum would educate its visitors about some of slavery's lesser-known dimensions. Exhibits might include depictions of the journey from Africa to America and descriptions of how children were uprooted from their families.
Wilder also said he would like to see a replica of a slave ship built next to the museum. Such a replica, he said, would show the conditions that Africans endured during their voyage to America.
But the first issue that must be resolved is where the museum will be located.
Wilder's 1993 proposal envisioned the museum on a 100-acre plot of privately owned farmland overlooking Jamestown Island, where many historians believe the first African slaves landed in 1619. But the business manager for the group that owns the land said it was not for sale.
The former governor said there were two other possibilities. One is in another part of James City County, which also includes Jamestown Island. But the site is landlocked and therefore could not have a reconstructed slave ship.
The other potential site is Hampton University, a historically black institution in Hampton, which is bordered on three sides by water and already houses a museum with extensive African, African-American and American Indian art.
The museum's director, Jeanne Zeidler, said those collections, coupled with Hampton's rich sense of African-American history, made a slavery museum a ``logical and special fit'' with the university.
Wilder would not speculate about the final cost of the museum, but called the $100,000 allocated by the state ``just a drop in the bucket.'' But he added, ``The money gives the project legitimacy and will help with recognition and raising money.''
Both Allen and Wilder said the museum should be a private endeavor and not financed primarily by taxpayer dollars.
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