Slavery Museum Loses its tax-exempt Status

The national slavery museum former Virginia governor L. Douglas Wilder hopes to create can no longer receive tax-deductible charitable contributions. On Wednesday, the IRS added the U.S. National Slavery Museum to the list of organizations that have had their federal tax-exempt status revoked.

For nearly two decades, Wilder has talked about the need for a place dedicated to teaching future generations about slavery. But the museum has not been built, as fundraising and other troubles slowed progress. In the fall, the museum filed for bankruptcy. Creditors have pressed for bills amounting to millions of dollars to be paid, and some donors have asked for rare artifacts, such as leg shackles and slave bills of sale, to be returned. Wilder did not return mes­sages seeking comment.

Perhaps Wilder should have called it the National Museum of African American History and Culture, invited President Barack Obama to the groundbreaking ceremony and taken the $500 million in government funding. 

Groundbreaking News

The $500 million National Museum of African American History and Culture will be the only national museum devoted solely to black life, art, history and culture.
The site is scheduled to open in 2015 on the National Mall, the two-mile-long stretch of parkland between the Capitol and the Lincoln Memorial.

Obama, the first black president, said the museum should be seen not as a memorial to black Americans' often-tragic history but as a reminder "that each of us is made in God's image."

"It should stand as a reminder that the best things in life rarely come quickly or easily," he told the groundbreaking ceremony.