Donor asks failed slavery museum to return artifacts

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A slave's collar, circa 1856, valued at $16,500. A first edition copy of Uncle Tom's Cabin, 1853, valued at $6,000. A slave's leg shackle, with an estimated value of $1,380. Therbia Parker figures he donated about $75,000 worth of slavery artifacts to the United States National Slavery Museum in 2004.

Even before the museum, which never opened, filed for bankruptcy this month, Parker had been trying to reach former Virginia Gov. Doug Wilder, the museum's founder, to get his artifacts back.

"Not just me, but other people donated artifacts, donated money," he said. "Like a thief in the night, Wilder didn't say nothing to nobody. He filed for bankruptcy."

Wilder, Parker said, has admitted that the board is in possession of numerous artifacts and says they're all safely in storage. But Parker said Wilder has refused to talk to him.

Wilder did not respond to phone calls or emails Thursday from The Pilot.

Parker said that he made an inventory of the items before he shipped them to Richmond. When he was asked to sign a contract with the museum regarding his donations, he requested that a clause be added. If the slavery museum doesn't come into existence, it said, Parker would get his artifacts back.

In addition, if for any reason Parker's artifacts weren't displayed in the museum for a period of one year once it opened, he'd have the right to reclaim them.

It was "the good Lord working," he said, that caused him to ask for that special wording.

The slavery museum was to have opened in 2004 but never could raise sufficient funds. No work has been done on the property since 2007. The bankruptcy filing listed more than $3 million in debts and said that no funds would be available to creditors.

Parker said Wilder won't say where the items are stored, and that he won't give a hint about how, with the specific clause he put into the contract, Parker can get back his possessions. Parker said he's talked with a lawyer whose opinion is that the items should be returned.

Diane Weeks of Goldsboro, N.C., donated to the museum a copy of the original slave papers of Callie House, a woman who tried to sue the federal government for back taxes in repayment for centuries of unpaid wages to slaves.

House??s story is told in the book "My Face Is Black Is True," by Mary Frances Berry. Weeks said she found the papers in her great-grandmother's possessions when the older woman died.

The donation to the museum was a copy, but it was a well-done copy, on authentic paper, said Weeks. Like Parker, she wants it back.

"For me, it was a dream that has turned into a nightmare," said Parker, a semi-retired roofing contractor.

Artifacts similar to the ones he donated and those he still has increase in value almost daily, he said. Some who made donations took tax deductions for donating to the tax-exempt organization. Parker never did. He wanted to retain ownership in case the museum was unsuccessful.

"I want those artifacts back, or I want them in a museum," Parker said. "American history will never be fully embraced until this information is known. And Doug Wilder has no right to these things.

"Everybody should be outraged. They are for the public, for the world to see."

Linda McNatt, (757) 222-5561, linda.mcnatt@pilotonline.com