Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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8 UCW SEPTEMBER 21 - 27, 2022 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM Follow Us Today! Stay up to date on all the Up & Coming Events in Cumberland County and surrounding areas! LIKE City Council authorizes $450,000 for planned Black Voices Museum by MICHAEL FUTCH, CityView Today e city is contributing $450,000 for a planned Black Voices Museum downtown. e Fayetteville City Council authorized the appropriation at its meeting Monday night, Sept. 12. Organizers say the museum would spotlight the rich history of African Americans in Fayetteville and Cumberland County. e Learning Together Co., which is promoting the proposed muse- um, has asked for a total of $895,000 from the city and the county. In April, the Cumberland County Board of Commissioners voted 5-1 to set aside $450,000 for the museum. at would cover half of the cost of the initial phase of the proposed project. "Half from the city and half from the county," Fayetteville Mayor Mitch Colvin said Tuesday. "We vot- ed last night to give them $450,000. What that is for (is) the planning, the design. … ey'll be back once they come back from that. "It was a pretty thorough memo- randum of understanding entered with them," Colvin said of the mu- seum planners. "I think we can use a similar model when talking about the N.C. history center." e agreement is among the museum planners and the county Board of Commissioners, the city and the Community Development Foundation. e N.C. Civil War & Reconstruc- tion History Center has been a controversial idea from the start. Critics say the center would not be the right move for Fayetteville because of the racial implications of its subject matter. Earlier this month, the City Coun- cil delayed voting on a request for $6.5 million for the history center. Colvin said he would support similar conditions on funding for both projects. e city is requiring the Black Voices group "to establish a com- mittee acceptable by the City Coun- cil who will handle content selec- tion and curating," Colvin said in a message to the City Council. "I believe we must be equitable and consistent," he wrote. Robert Van Geons, president and CEO of the Fayetteville Cumberland Economic Development Corp., has frequently supported Black Voices organizers when they have pitched the idea to the City Council and county Board of Commissioners. "One of the biggest things we want to do is engage to collect and borrow the actual documents," Van Geons said of museum refer- ence materials. "A big part of that is cataloging, connecting, engaging with local historians and bringing on board people that can do the research. at's the first step. "I think what we've got is an early stage of concept that continues to resonate with everybody we have spoken to," he said. "We need to tell this very important story." Dauv Evans, the project director, and William Cassell, the project co- ordinator, have been having discus- sions for the past few years about building a museum in Fayetteville to acknowledge the achieve- ments of the area's Black com- munity. As proposed, the museum would tell the story of how Black culture has shaped Fayetteville and Cumberland County, from the founders of Fayetteville State University to the present-day social justice movement. Sir David Adjaye was selected to design the museum. Adjaye is perhaps best known for designing the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington. On Monday night, Mac Healy made another pitch to the City Council on behalf of the Civil War History Center. Healy is chairman of the center's board of directors. Healy said he had received some calls from members of the council and wanted to try to answer some questions. He said one of the center's proj- ects is to procure 100 historical sto- ries from each county in the state. "e question was, were we going to be committed to diversity and in- clusiveness in those stories?" Healy told the council. "We are committed to diversity, race, religion, men and women, everything in those stories. As we collect our stories, you have our word we will commit to being inclusive and diverse in the stories that we have in our record." Another question, he said, was about governing boards. "We have an advisory board right now," he said. "And unlike a lot of museums and history centers in the state of North Carolina, we set this up so there would be a local advi- sory board for input. is board will advise the state and programming and exhibits. It's different from a lot of places. is is an advisory board set up. We welcome participation on that." At 7 p.m. Oct. 10 and 10 a.m. Oct. 11, Highland Presbyterian Church, at 111 Highland Ave., will host a community forum on the history center as part of its organizers' public outreach. e center's design team will display storyboards that will be the beginning of the content of the history center, according to Healy. "is will be left for a week for citizens, at their leisure, for a walk- through and (to) make suggestions, corrections and give any input they want on those," Healy said. "We'll take those back and get with the historians." Mayor Colvin said Tuesday he is unsure what the council's next step would be on the Civil War & Recon- struction History Center. NEWS MICHAEL FUTCH, CityView Today. COMMENTS? Editor@upandcomingweekly. com. 910-484-6200.