Inside the Beltway

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Port for slavery

An enthusiastic Bill Cosby was one of several familiar faces from the black community who filled the Warner Theater on Saturday night for the U.S. National Slavery Museum's premiere fundraising event.

The 100,000-plus-square-foot museum, when completed over the next two years on 39 acres of Rappahannock riverfront in Fredericksburg, Va., will become the nation's first museum to tell the full story of American slavery.

Besides myriad exhibits, the privately run museum will support a full-scale replica of a slave ship, a library and archives, 450-seat theater and a commemorative wall and walkway to honor blacks who made significant contributions to this country but never received recognition.

Addressing the Warner crowd was former Virginia governor-turned-Richmond Mayor L. Douglas Wilder, a grandson of slaves who came up with the idea for a museum during a 1993 trip to Gabon, where he spoke to the second African/African AmericanSummit. He now chairs the museum's board of directors.

Only through greater knowledge and understanding of the history of slavery, Mr. Wilder believes, can America "become free of its legacy."

Party against slavery

Two significant anniversaries, normally observed two days apart this month, have been combined by the National Black Republican Association (NBRA), headquartered near the U.S. Capitol.

While celebrating the 150th anniversary of the first Republican National Convention, held on June 17, 1856, the NBRA is encouraging state and county Republican Party organizations to also "publicize the facts that the Republican Party freed the slaves and that 'Juneteenth' -- June 19th -- is a celebration of this Republican Party victory."