DATE: Tuesday, March 18, 1997               TAG: 9703180276

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B2   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY IDA KAY JORDAN, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH                        LENGTH:   39 lines

GROUP LAUNCHES MUSEUM EFFORT TO HONOR STATE'S BLACK CULTURE

A movement to organize an African-American Museum of Virginia in Portsmouth was launched Sunday night at a banquet sponsored by the Charles H. Bowens Foundation at Temple Beth-El in Suffolk.

About 200 people, including U.S. Rep. Robert C. Scott (D-3rd District), responded to a call to support a museum that would conduct research and present information about black contributions to Virginia history from pre-Revolutionary days to the present.

``We need a repository, a place for archives and artifacts,'' Elder Charles Bowens II said. ``Our young people need examples to live by. We need to show them how we got here.''

Bowens is a retired educator who is pastor of New Testament Church. He organized the museum foundation, which bears the name of his father - a Naval Shipyard employee, a tugboat operator, a builder and a businessman in Portsmouth.

The foundation board has been looking at buildings on High Street between Green and Effingham streets as possible locations for the proposed museum. Margaret Gatling, treasurer of the organization, said board members feel downtown Portsmouth's other museums and galleries create an appropriate setting for the African-American Museum.

Gatling said the foundation has not conducted a major fund-raising effort yet, pending approval of its tax-free status.

``We are busy now trying to get the paperwork done on that because people want to be able to deduct their contributions,'' she said. In addition, some supporters are gathering information for grants proposals that will be made to both private and public groups with money to distribute.

Gatling said it is important to establish a secure, attractive museum to encourage local people who own artifacts to share them.

``There are some very valuable things in this area,'' she said. ``We intend to put out a broad call for artifacts when we have a building ready for them.''

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