Posted on 07/29/2002 8:05:02 AM PDT by robowombat
Confederate Museum won't leave building Joyce Howard Price THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Published 7/28/2002
Officials of the Confederate Museum in New Orleans vow they will not vacate the building they've called home for nearly 112 years until all legal appeals are exhausted. Last week they got a setback: A judge ruled they do not own the historic red brick structure at 929 Camp St., which houses thousands of Civil War artifacts, most of them donated by the Confederate veterans who used them, or their families.
"Unfortunately, [New Orleans Civil District] Judge C. Hunter King ruled for the other side. So we are appealing to the Louisiana 4th Circuit Court of Appeals," said James Carriere, vice president of Memorial Hall Museum Inc.,which runs the Confederate Museum and owns its collection.
Dr. Glen Cangelosi, a physician who is a member of the museum's board of directors, said the battle will "go all the way to the Louisiana State Supreme Court" if necessary. "We won't leave voluntarily," he said, adding that the museum boasts the second-largest collection of Confederate artifacts in the world after the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond.
The museum's legal adversary is a philanthropic organization known as the University of New Orleans Foundation, which plans to open the Ogden Museum of Southern Art in two buildings in the immediate area of the Civil War museum. The new museum will be a collection of 120,000 artworks by Southern artists from all periods. The problem: The old museum sits right smack in the middle of the two Ogden buildings.
There have been numerous newspaper accounts, including one written in July 2001 in The Washington Times, saying the foundation wants to evict the Confederate Museum. Its memorabilia includes a battle flag stained with a Rebel commander's blood, Confederate Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard's frock coat and a crown of thorns that Pope Pius IX gave to Confederate President Jefferson Davis.
In an interview Thursday, Elizabeth M. Williams, president of the UNO Foundation, commended Judge King's decision. But she quickly added: "We have never said we'll evict them. I've constantly said we have to talk to them. We were in a property dispute over a title. It had nothing to do with the building's contents." Mr. Carriere confirmed that the foundation has never used the word "evict" but said the group has a problem with the museum's name — specifically with "the word Confederate." The foundation has suggested that the museum seek another location, he said, and that the foundation objects to "the military artifacts and to the organizations that meet there."
Mr. Carriere said foundation officials have made it very clear they approve of Civil War art in the museum's exhibit but not guns and other weapons. He said the museum has tried to strike compromises with the foundation, but the would-be deals always broke down.
Patricia Ricci, curator of the Confederate Museum, charged yesterday that the foundation "feels we're outdated, Victorian, antiquated and unwanted." Dr. Cangelosi put it this way: "Maybe they don't think we're politically correct." News accounts of the dispute have repeatedly noted that the population of New Orleans is 70 percent black.
But Miss Williams said the UNO Foundation does not view the museum's military collection in a negative light. "We think all of the Confederate Museum collection is a wonderful collection that needs to be preserved," she said. In interviews Thursday, both Mr. Carriere and Dr. Cangelosi said the museum cannot file an appeal of Judge King's ruling until the judge sets bond.
The UNO Foundation says it bought the museum's building in December 2000 for $425,000 from a group called the Howard Memorial Library Association, original owner of an old library building next to the Confederate Museum. The Confederate Museum sued the UNO Foundation, saying the building could not be sold without its approval, because it was donated by Frank T. Howard, a wealthy businessman, in 1891 to be used "perpetually" as a Confederate museum.
Copyright © 2002 News World Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.
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The foundation has suggested that the museum seek another location, he said, and that the foundation objects to "the military artifacts and to the organizations that meet there."
Freepers if you are a UNO alum you might want to drop a note to the alumni office telling them what you think of the UNO Foundations activities and how it will impact your future receptivity to alumni contributions. Since the D-Day museum is accross the street from the Confederate Museum a good question for the very evolved Ms. Williams is if she objects to the weapons displayed there? I suspect she does and wishes that other horrible monument to violence were located somewhere away from her precious contemporary art exhibitions (Mapplethorne perhaps?). I gather the contemptously described "organizations" that meet there refers to those arch fiends the Sons of Confederate Veterens, who in Ms. Williams sniffy view are a David Duke auxiliary.
One of y'all might want to ping others to this article. I'm not sure how to use the ping list.
Confederate is a bad word now? What idiots!
I am so sick of the attck on our heritage.
That's just uncalled for.
And if they did wind up selling it, I would be in line for some of the firearms I saw there. I saw firearms there that I had never seen in any book or collection.
Anyway, it's nowhere near Pittsburgh, so it shouldn't be so threatening to you. You don't have to visit that particular museum if you don't want to.
BTTT!
Humm, seems as though you are not getting the picture here. There is a reason most Southerners still support Southern Heritage and the South will never "get over it." If you missed that rather obvious fact, you have missed the entire point of the exercise. There is no "getting over it" which is why the South withdrew from an oppressive federal government in the first place. The South was, and is, forever our homeland. It simply is a different kind of people, a different environment with different customs and attitudes. Which is why we find mouthy yankees difficult to tolerate.
Since the D-Day museum is accross the street from the Confederate Museum a good question for the very evolved Ms. Williams is if she objects to the weapons displayed there?
ah ha! I did not know about the D-Day museum. If the military content of the Confederate Museum was truly the issue, they would also be making noise about the D-Day museum across the street. That they are not says alot about the real issue, which is the word "Confederate" and not the military items at all.
The d#mn name of the city's hockey team is Confederate!!! Are they going after them next?
News accounts of the dispute have repeatedly noted that the population of New Orleans is 70 percent black.
And God forbid did someone not tell these folks of the Confederate origins of the Louisiana Native Guards? While agreed they did fight for the union later in the War, their origins were for the Confederacy. I'm sure some of the fine folk in New Orleans have these ancestors to look up to. What about those fighting soldiers?
This is just another example of idiots in control, no idea of history, remake it as it fits their needs/
These same reconstructed minds probably think niggardly is a bad word, too. If given a chance, they would burn the American Heritage Dictionary along with Webster's 1828.
I would even set aside my boycott of New Orleans and support the Confederate Museum.
(Two places I've never been to and won't go to are Las Vegas and New Orleans.)
Worse, they're anti-American.
I guess you can't see the contradiction in what you just posted can you? BTW, trot out those flag cartoons you used to post and tell us where you found the images. We'd all love to know what "conservative" site has them on display. Post'em, boy.
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