NAACP: Tell 'whole story' of the Confederacy
Local NAACP members not unreceptive to Confederate museum in the area
Date published: 3/9/2008
BY DAN TELVOCK
The Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond may have found more support for a facility in Spotsylvania County to house artifacts with local ties.
Spotsylvania's chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People hasn't endorsed the museum, but some members said last week they would support the plan if it tells the "whole story."
"We are going to tell the full American story," said Museum of the Confederacy President Waite Rawls.
In September, Rawls announced his vision of a system of four museums in Virginia, including one at or near the Chancellorsville battlefield.
The museum in Richmond is dwarfed by the adjacent Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center. Attendance is down nearly 50 percent.
The White House of the Confederacy and the museum's administration headquarters, research center and library would remain in Richmond. The other two proposed sites are Appomattox Court House National Park and Fort Monroe in Hampton.
Rawls has met with local Rotary Club members, Confederacy museum members in the region and the Chamber of Commerce. On Thursday, he met with the NAACP at Mount Hope Baptist Church. About 50 people attended, along with five Spotsylvania supervisors.
"What we are looking for is balance," said NAACP member Col. Horace McCaskill. "We're not adverse to learning about the Confederacy side, but we want the whole story to be told, and we need to understand that."
The "whole story" means "all cultures involved in the Civil War," including the roles of free and enslaved blacks and Americans Indian, he said.
Rawls said the Museum of the Confederacy has unique artifacts that "will bring the human face to what happened on those [battle] fields." His plans call for 8,000-square-foot buildings with about 5,000 square feet for exhibits. Each site would cost an estimated $5 million. He said he wants 1,000 square feet for a community room in each facility.
"One of the things I would love to have in the Museum of the Confederacy here is an NAACP meeting. It would send a signal to all Americans of what we are all about," he said.
Rawls said the museum would be an economic boon by attracting more tourists. He is talking with private donors and may not launch a full capital campaign for a year, he said. He hopes to have a Spotsylvania museum open by 2012.
| Museum of the Confederacy President Waite Rawls said he chose Spotsylvania, Appomattox, Fort Monroe and Richmond as the sites for a system of Confederacy museums because of the rich historical significance of each place:
Spotsylvania County is the bloodiest spot in American history. "More people died right here," Rawls said, "more people were wounded right here than anywhere in the country, because it happened over and over again."
Rawls said there is no better place to tell the story of a free country than Fort Monroe in Hampton, where Union Maj. Gen. Benjamin F. Butler in 1861 made a decision that resulted in slaves' fleeing to the fort, nicknamed "Freedom's Fortress." Slaves who reached Fort Monroe were set free.
Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered to Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant on April 9, 1865, at Appomattox Courthouse, after the final engagement of the war in Virginia. It is where the war ended and the country started to reunify, Rawls said.
Richmond served as the capital of the Confederacy.
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| "I think some people had the idea that blacks, as a group, would be opposed to the museum because it would be objectionable to them. I think we have the same concerns as any individual would have in this county. The museum itself does not bother me, as long as it tells the true story."
--Richard Toye, NAACP member
"To some people, the term 'Confederacy' has a stigma with it. But it is part of our history. Again, let's move on and learn from this. It is an educational process."
--Layton Fairchild, former candidate for Spotsylvania Board of Supervisors
"I think, really, balance is what we are looking for here. We want to know what the parameters of this museum will be. How balanced will it be? Will it have exhibits on free blacks? Will it be telling the story in a balanced fashion?"
--Cleo Coleman, NAACP member and history buff
"We learn from them, they learn from us. The starting point is always learning to improve the gap between perception and reality."
--Waite Rawls, president of the Museum of the Confederacy
"Let's just see if the Museum of the Confederacy is right for Spotsylvania County."
--Supervisor Jerry Logan, who organized the meeting with the NAACP
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Date published: 3/9/2008
Most recent reader comments:
Seeing is believing
(posted by
, Mar. 13, 2008 10:51 pm)
When my kids were in the Spotsylvania middle-school system (about 10 years ago), their History books taught that blacks during slavery were in fact indentured servants. I hope those books have been replaced with more truthful books by now.
I seriously doubt that a full and complete story will be told here in VA. No money in it.
Surrender to the NAACP
(posted by
Zeus
, Mar. 11, 2008 10:19 am)
Shame on Rawls for even considering this! The NAACP ( Nat'l Assoc of always complaining people ) are once again at it with a renewed effort to suppress and/or erradicate the symbols of our National Heritage. The SCV has successfully met challenges to Southern heritage previously many times. One that comes to mind is the flag at the SC statehouse - now in a more prominent location! The NAACP needs help and legitimacy, as membership is declining. SC tourism is doing very well. To hell with Rawls & NAACP.
Being a History Major
(posted by
wideopenspace
, Mar. 9, 2008 11:09 am)
it's about time we see something from the Confederacy side that the local NAACP will actually endorse. For far too long other NAACP groups have denounced the Confederacy as being racist for trying to show the truth of the Civil War. Many blacks fought for the South and were free when they took up arms to fight for the southern side yet the war was somehow about slavery, or so says many NAACP members. Good deal that historical facts won't be turned away by Political Correctness this time.
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