Suffolk man wants return of slavery artifacts

SUFFOLK

Here's what one of the less offensive signs in Therbia Parker's house says:

"No dogs, Negroes, Mexicans."

A postcard he has features a black woman next to a donkey under the words "Two of a Kind." A cowhide whip lies on a table next to a pair of shackles once used on slaves.

Unzipping a stowed suitcase reveals a Ku Klux Klan robe splattered with dried blood.

Hundreds of artifacts spanning the days from the antebellum South to Jim Crow overrun this small home in the woods that belongs to Parker, a 62-year-old contractor turned curator. His enterprise "Listen to the Drumbeat Productions" is dedicated to showing how integral a disturbing part of African American history is to American history.

This isn't even half of his collection, said Parker, a Suffolk native who graduated from a segregated Southwestern High School in 1967. Much of the memorabilia he found during his travels up and down the East Coast is stored in boxes or stuffed in drawers.

And some of it, he fears, might be lost.

In 1993, then-governor L. Douglas Wilder proposed a museum in Fredericksburg that would tell the story. The United States National Slavery Museum initially was an established nonprofit that planned to build on 38 acres along the Rappahannock River.

Now, the nonprofit is dissolved and the museum's executive director has resigned. An unkempt garden marks the land, which now has unpaid taxes on it dating to 2008.

Parker cannot get an answer on what happened to the artifacts he donated to the museum in October 2004. Two shipments, including a slave collar, a handwritten bill of sale for a Negro girl and child from 1850 and a first edition "Uncle Tom's Cabin," are among the 95 items Parker donated - a collection he said was worth $75,000 at the time.

"The worst thing you can do about history is deny it," Parker said. "My wife and I wanted them to be in a place where the public can view them, where they can be used as an educational tool. I didn't collect all this for all these years for me.

"This wasn't for me. It wasn't for Doug Wilder, either."

Parker has a deed of gift contract signed by the museum's original executive director that states that if the museum ceases to exist or fails to become a reality, his property will be returned.

In February Wilder issued a statement promising the museum will be built, but noted plans are on standby because of the recession.

"We intend to build the United States National Slavery Museum. And we will build it on the beautiful piece of land we own off the Rappahannock River in Fredericksburg, Va.," reads the statement on his website, WilderVisions.com.

"No one should hold any doubt about either of those facts."

Parker doesn't believe him. Nor does he believe that the items are "safely in storage," which Wilder also noted in the statement.

"Where?" Parker asks. "The office has been abandoned. The 501(c)3 has expired. They owe the city of Fredericksburg almost $150,000 in back taxes. There's an engineering firm that has a lien on the property of about $40,000. You mean to tell me you're paying for storage?"

Ruth Jones, executive assistant to Wilder at Virginia Commonwealth University, where he is an adjunct professor, said she passed along a phone message and email from The Virginian-Pilot about this matter. Neither was returned.

The Smithsonian has plans under way for a National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, opening in 2015. A slavery museum also has been discussed in Richmond. That leaves Parker doubting further that anything will be built in Fredericksburg.

"Not with those two things so close," he said.

Parker frequently gives presentations to local museums, schools and civic groups and would like to see his collection on display in Hampton Roads, given the area's own unique history.

His entire collection, that is. A registered letter he sent to Wilder a few weeks ago resulted in a staff member sending him a copy of the statement on WilderVisions.com.

Parker holds the letter in disgust. "I want my artifacts back, just point blank."

Vicki Friedman, (757) 222-5218, vicki.friedman@pilotonline.com