All aboard: Museum would explain city’s history related to Underground Railroad

Published 6:49 pm Tuesday, May 12, 2015

FILE PHOTO | DAILY NEWS HISTORY LESSON: Leesa Jones (second from left) conducts a tour that focuses on Washington’s African-American history. Jones is part of an effort to locate the Washington Waterfront Underground Railroad Museum in the caboose next to the Washington Civic Center.

FILE PHOTO | DAILY NEWS
HISTORY LESSON: Leesa Jones (second from left) conducts a tour that focuses on Washington’s African-American history. Jones is part of an effort to locate the Washington Waterfront Underground Railroad Museum in the caboose next to the Washington Civic Center.

Washington’s City Council, during its meeting Monday, authorized city staff, including City Attorney Franz Holscher, to draft an “operational agreement” related to establishing a Underground Railroad museum on city property.

The proposed museum would operate under the auspices of the Washington Harbor District Alliance, according to Rebecca Clark and Leesa Jones, who explained the museum project to the council. Clark works on several WHDA projects and events. Jones researches the role of African-Americans in Washington’s history and conducts tours that focus on that history.

Clark said the Washington Waterfront Underground Railroad Museum committee proposed leasing the caboose (owned by the city) adjacent to the Washington Civic Center as the site for the museum. “We are here to ask the City of Washington to allow our committee to restore the downtown caboose to what we believe are its original colors and allow us to use this property to house a pictorial museum of the Underground Railroad,” she said.

Washington recently received designation as a National Park Service Underground Network to Freedom site. The committee’s goal is to have the museum open by the latter part of this summer, Clark said.

In a presentation last year, Jones said her research discovered evidence of ship captains used the Pamlico River to help slaves escape to freedom. She also found African-Americans used codes at the waterfront to tell escaping slaves whether to wait or board the ships.

On Monday, Jones said the museum would enhance the city’s appeal to tourists who visit Washington because of its history.

“We believe it’s a win-win situation for the City of Washington,” Jones said.

Councilman Doug Mercer expressed concerns about the proposal, saying he had not seen any information concerning the city’s involvement with the project.

“It’s a great idea. I support the concept and am ready to move forward with it,” he said. “The difficulty I have is the (proposed) motion says the City Council will authorize the staff to draft and enter into an agreement, and we don’t have a draft of what we’re proposing. I’d like to see the language of what the city is being committed to and what they are being committed to before I say yea or nay.”

Holscher said he and City Manager Brian Alligood discussed the project, with Holscher telling Alligood he thought the council would think some type of operational agreement would be preferable to a lease.

“I’m not sure that you want to convey a property interest, but you may want to. My idea was that it would be an operational agreement that would give them the right to do the things they want to do and utilize the inside of the caboose, but you wouldn’t convey a property interest in that and the land itself,” Holscher said.

Clark said the committee doesn’t “want to take over the property” but have permission to use it for presentations and re-enactments.

The council instructed city staff to prepare an operational agreement, then present that proposed agreement to the council for possible approval at the council’s June 8 meeting.

Clark said Washington’s Noon Rotary supports the project and has “lined up” professional painters to repaint the caboose.

 

 

About Mike Voss

Mike Voss is the contributing editor at the Washington Daily News. He has a daughter and four grandchildren. Except for nearly six years he worked at the Free Lance-Star in Fredericksburg, Va., in the early to mid-1990s, he has been at the Daily News since April 1986.
Journalism awards:
• Pulitzer Prize for Meritorious Public Service, 1990.
• Society of Professional Journalists: Sigma Delta Chi Award, Bronze Medallion.
• Associated Press Managing Editors’ Public Service Award.
• Investigative Reporters & Editors’ Award.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Public Service Award, 1989.
• North Carolina Press Association, Second Place, Investigative Reporting, 1990.
All those were for the articles he and Betty Gray wrote about the city’s contaminated water system in 1989-1990.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Investigative Reporting, 1991.
• North Carolina Press Association, Third Place, General News Reporting, 2005.
• North Carolina Press Association, Second Place, Lighter Columns, 2006.
Recently learned he will receive another award.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Lighter Columns, 2010.
4. Lectured at or served on seminar panels at journalism schools at UNC-Chapel Hill, University of Maryland, Columbia University, Mary Washington University and Francis Marion University.

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