The City of Fayetteville has played a big role in getting a planned museum on the Civil War and Reconstruction underway. The new museum was originally estimated to cost $65 million and now the price has gone up to $80 million. Much of this additional money is expected to come from the State of North Carolina, which will take over the ownership of the museum when it is completed. A Fayetteville City Council Working Session took a close look at the project this week. A new working name for the museum was announced at the meeting, it is “The North Carolina Civil War, Emancipation, and Reconstruction History Center.”
City Council members repeatedly expressed concern that the museum might be used to promulgate the Lost Cause narrative that dominated how North Carolinians were taught about that period when the members were young. Representatives of the museum project said that this museum would not be about battles and weaponry, but about the people of North Carolina and how they experienced the war. The museum planners also said that the center would not be used as a place to relocate the Confederate monuments that have been removed from cities around the state over the last seven years.
Mac Healy, the Chairman of the Board of the center, spoke about the importance of moving forward on the project. Costs of materials and labor are increasing, he said. The first commitments of government funding was put forward in 2016, before the pandemic-related price rise, and the expenses are likely to continue to rise.
The city and county each committed to contribute $7.5 million to the project, so long as the state contributed the money needed to complete the center. Now, years later, the state has finally committed to providing $60 million and the city and county are reconsidering their own support. While three buildings that are to be part of the museum have already gone up, the centerpiece, a 60,000 square foot history center, is still in the works.
One council member recalled that as a girl, she had gone to reenactments at the Arsenal which were supposed to be educative but were not what had been promised. As a Black girl, she said, she was very uncomfortable back then at these events. She worried that for all the promises of inclusivity and educational value, modern children might find the same uncomfortable experience.
The center will open in 2025 if funding proceeds. Mayor Mitch Colvin said that there are five votes on the nine-member council in support of the museum.
You can watch the entire Fayetteville City Council meeting below. The museum is discussed during the first hour of the meeting.
Note: Feature is an artist’s rendering of the proposed center.
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