Black-Oriented Museums Are Lacking Black Donors

Meeks would not name the sports figures who were contacted. But a top administrator at the Ali Center, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of being fired, said former basketball stars Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley were contacted, as were golfer Tiger Woods and fight promoter Don King. Actor Will Smith, who was nominated for an Academy Award for his movie portrayal of Ali, was also solicited, the administrator said. None contributed.

With their numbers dramatically rising, black-oriented museums, memorials and centers are increasingly dependent on the largess of black people. But with the notable exception of Bill Cosby and Oprah Winfrey, prominent black entertainers and athletes, and black Americans in general, tend not to contribute to these cultural institutions.

In the past two years, at least seven major black museums, cultural centers and memorials, amounting to about $1 billion in capital costs alone, have opened or gone into planning, including a Smithsonian national African American museum in Washington.

The Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture opened this year in Baltimore, not long after the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center's opening in Cincinnati last year. San Francisco opened its Museum of the African Diaspora in the past week. The National Slavery Museum in Fredericksburg and a memorial to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in Washington are in the works.

Some museum executives say fundraising is a challenge, not a problem. But others note that several older African American museums are struggling, and they wonder how the new institutions will raise millions of dollars for rich endowments that help finance their operations in lean times.

The largest black museum, the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit, where Rosa Parks's body was viewed recently, is struggling for money and attendance. The African American Museum in Philadelphia, with its half-million dollar debt, was nearly forced to shut its doors for good this year.

Sandy Bellamy, executive director of the $33 million Reginald F. Lewis Museum, so named because its deceased black eponym contributed $5 million, said black Americans volunteer to work as well as give money.

"For every city you're looking at, there are two or three museums that people are sustaining," Bellamy said.

Ed Able, president and chief executive of the American Association of Museums, said black Americans have not given traditionally, but newly formed organizations are changing that by showing wealthy black people how to create charitable tax shelters.

Gasman said a major reason why black Americans did not give in the past is that most were not asked, in the belief that they did not have money. On the other hand, she said, wealthy black donors were asked too often.

"I can't imagine how many times Michael Jordan is asked to contribute money," Gasman said. "He can't give to everything."

Estee Portnoy, Jordan's spokeswoman, would not confirm or deny that he was called. "We never comment on Michael and Juanita Jordan's financial contributions," she said.