THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, February 14, 1996 TAG: 9602140440
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A9 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY GREG WEATHERFORD, LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium: 66 lines
The nation's first elected African-American governor and the director of the 100-year-old Museum of the Confederacy will go national this morning on the ``Today'' show.
They'll be talking about a party, racism and the larger question of how this city by the James River should remember its past.
This week's burst of attention started with Sunday's New York Times which reported that African-American leaders are outraged by the museum and White House of the Confederacy's plan for a costume gala: Some guests may dress in hoop skirts and Confederate uniforms.
The Confederate ball points to a widening racial division in Richmond, says L. Douglas Wilder. ``It's very unfortunate because when racial scars are beginning to heal, (when) most people are talking of moving forward, this pulls the scab off the wound,'' Wilder said.
What would happen, Wilder said, if he proposed a party commemorating Nat Turner, the slave who in 1831 led a Southampton County rebellion that killed 55 whites. The former governor answers his own question: Whites would say, ``Oh my God!'' while blacks would welcome it.
The museum's director, Robin Reed, seems perplexed by the attention. ``This whole thing has been really strange,'' he said when asked what reactions he heard. ``There's been no reaction other than from Doug Wilder.
``We have an institution that is 100 years old and one of the many things we are doing to celebrate that is putting on a dance,'' Reed said. ``We think we've got a right to do that.''
By Tuesday afternoon, the museum had fielded inquiries from Austrian television, Canadian public radio and others. Geraldo Rivera's people have called to express interest in the story, according to one Richmond TV producer.
``I've heard very little about the ball,'' said Don Pierce, publisher of Guide to Historic Virginia and a specialist in the Civil War. ``There hasn't been a whole lot of attention to it. This is the first I've heard of it.''
City and state leaders contacted for comment hadn't really heard any outcry from residents about the party.
``Is this a state issue?'' wondered state Sen. Henry Marsh, a former Richmond mayor, when contacted for his thoughts.
The aide for state Sen. Benjamin Lambert said the senator, didn't know anything about the issue.
``The real question is . . . the strange silence that is happening in the city of Richmond,'' Wilder said, pointing to the public silence of Leonidus Young, the African-American mayor of this 55 percent black city.
The usually accessible Young didn't return messages requesting comment on the issue.
``There are bigger issues that African-American leaders could address than this,'' said Kenneth L. Brown, a Richmond Civil War re-enactor who portrays black Union soldiers. ``What about joblessness and educating our African-American children?''
Though acknowledging that some find the ball offensive, Brown said critics think that ``because it's a ball it's a celebration of slavery. It isn't.'' ILLUSTRATION: DEBATE
Bryant Gumble will moderate a debate between L. Douglas Wilder and
Robin Reed, the Museum of the Confederacy's director, at 7:14 a.m.
today.
by CNB