ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, January 19, 1997 TAG: 9701200049
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-4 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: NORFOLK
SOURCE: SONJA BARISIC ASSOCIATED PRESS
MANY WOULD LIKE to forget that part of America's history. He says that would rob us "of an accurate portrayal of our history.''
Robert J. Wilder grew up the son of former slaves, and what his parents had to endure was something he would not talk about, not even to his son.
When asked about it, he would bite down hard on his pipe and keep his silence, recalled Douglas Wilder, who became the nation's first elected black governor.
But the son believes so strongly that slavery should be discussed that he wants to build what is thought would be the first museum in the United States focused on remembering and honoring slaves.
``African-Americans have not relished that story. They want to say `We've moved beyond that,''' Wilder said in an interview from Richmond, where he teaches politics at Virginia Commonwealth University.
``But if everybody moves beyond that, there is a plethora of ignorance consequently. So much has been lost from that period. So much is misunderstood. The thing that's more frustrating to me than anything is that it robs us of an accurate portrayal of our history as a country.''
Wilder first proposed the museum in 1993 while on a trade trip to Africa. He was inspired by a stop at Goree Island on the coast of Senegal, from where Africans were first shipped as slaves to America.
Wilder, Virginia's governor from 1990 to 1994, set aside $100,000 in state funds as seed money for the museum. Although Wilder and the group he created for the project have been doing behind-the-scenes work, the money was never spent, and it reverted to the state's general fund.
Wilder's successor, Gov. George Allen, last month announced he was reinstating the money, putting the museum back on the front burner.
``I think it's appropriate to honor and remember the determination and remarkable courage of the individuals who have endured that bondage,'' Allen said. ``The slaves are very much a part of our history in Virginia.''
Africans first came to Virginia in 1619 aboard a Dutch ship that arrived at Point Comfort, in what is now Hampton. A short time later, most were brought to Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in America.
If approved by the General Assembly this winter, the seed money will be given to The Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, a state agency that administers the Jamestown Settlement and Yorktown Victory Center Museum.
The foundation then will select a nonprofit group to run the museum, spokeswoman Debby Padgett said. She said she did not know whether that group would be Wilder's.
But Wilder's organization is the only group that has come forward to take on the project. Its national advisory board includes celebrities Bill Cosby and Cicely Tyson, as well as historians and scholars.
The United States has more than 100 black history museums, but none is focused entirely on slavery, said Juanita Moore, president of the African-American Museums Association in Wilberforce, Ohio.
Moore praised Wilder's efforts to fill the gap.
``In this country, when we think of history as significant and something worthy of being discussed and taught, we do it in the form of museums,'' said Moore, who lives in Memphis, Tenn. ``I think there would be no disagreement that slavery would fall into that category.''
Wilder said he plans to focus in earnest on the museum this year while continuing to teach. Costs need to be studied, funds need to be raised and land needs to be acquired.
Wilder, whose father died in 1968, hopes to break ground by the end of the century. His first choice for a location is Jamestown.
``I don't know of a better place than in Jamestown, Virginia, where the first mass concentrations of Africans as slaves occurred in this state,'' Wilder said.
Another possibility would be expanding the Hampton University Museum in Hampton, which is home to a collection of African and African-American art.
Wilder envisions a museum that will include artifacts such as manacles and slave owners' records, and a replica of a slave ship.
``The whole purpose is not to foist guilt or hang recrimination around the necks of people, but to ... be honest about the facts and understand who we were and who we are,'' Wilder said.
``What has divided us in the past can't continue to divide us, because we are one people, whether we want to admit it or not.''
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