- A Black Voices Museum is in the early planning stages for Fayetteville.
- Community input has shaped the museum’s conceptual designs, which are inspired by the hymn “Lift Every Voice and Sing.”
- The proposed 83,000-square-foot building has an estimated cost of $175 million to $215 million.
A Black Voices Museum in Fayetteville is still in the early stages of planning, but about a dozen residents were recently shown what the museum could look like if it were here.
In 2022, the Cumberland County Board of Commissioners and the Fayetteville City Council agreed to split the $900,000 cost for the first phase of the Black Voice and History Museum project.
Commissioners in January 2024 approved a contract with the Community Development Foundation to oversee the project, which would include a study, community engagement and preliminary design for the museum.
The Community Development Foundation is a nonprofit through the Fayetteville Cumberland County Economic Development Corp.
Project representatives shared early conceptual designs and feedback from community engagement sessions during a Sept. 30 public information session.
Community input
Project managers held three vision workshops, during which 47 participants provided their input on the questions “what are the possibilities for this museum and what does it mean to empower Black voices?” said Dauv Evans, the project’s community outreach consultant.
Fayetteville residents Rose Harris and Brenda Gordon were part of the community sessions.
Following the Sept. 30 meeting, Harris told The Fayetteville Observer she thinks the museum would be engaging for residents and visitors, while creating a sense of pride in Fayetteville.
Gordon said the work sessions allowed a diverse group of participants to speak freely about the project.
“The team that was there allowed us to determine what we wanted (and) what our vision was,” she said. “Some people had painful things to say, painful reflections, but everybody felt comfortable. We didn’t always agree, but everybody accepted what their idea was, and I think this is needed in Fayetteville, and it can put us on a map in a positive way.”
Harris and Gordon said they think the Sept. 30 presentation captured the vision workshop participants’ input.
Additionally, representatives met one-on-one with nine residents identified by local leaders to hear their stories; community surveys handed out at Fayetteville events produced 51 responses; and 703 people have visited the project’s website, blackvoicesmuseum.com, Evans said.
Based on the input, Evans said, project leaders identified nine pillars that make Fayetteville historically, culturally and geographically relevant, including the city’s historically Black college, Fayetteville State University, and the city’s proximity to Fort Bragg.
“I heard several stories about what that meant to Fayetteville, more specifically, the Black citizens. A lot of stories that you can’t read about, and they need to be housed somewhere,” Evans said.
Other pillars include that the museum would serve as an economic and cultural revitalization project; would educate visitors on Fayetteville’s Black history; and would include a center for equity.
“We all know that sometimes it’s hard to get the real story of what’s going on, but this can be an opportunity to do just that,” he said.
Evans said eight themes were also identified, two of which set goals for the museum to create power through storytelling and prioritize youth.
“All these things really shape what this project can be,” he said. “We can tell the stories of yesterday and how we can shape the Fayetteville of tomorrow.”
Fayetteville Council member Derrick Thompson, who attended the Sept. 30 meeting, said he would like young people to be the top priority.
“My priority is to make sure our youth know where they come from so they know where they’re going,” Thompson said. “I think this will change their mindset if we can make that a priority to let them know, ‘Look, your forefathers did this.’”
‘Joel inspired the Black Voices Museum’
The location for the museum, currently a parking lot at 122 Person St. near Otis Jones Parkway in downtown Fayetteville, is on land donated by Fayetteville native Joel Fleishman.
Fleishman, who died Sept. 30, 2024, was a philanthropist, part of the Jewish community and founder of the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University, said William Cassell, who is working with the project leadership team and is a representative for the property owners.
“Joel inspired the Black Voices Museum,” Cassell said.
Cassell said that during the early ’90s, Fleishman worked with Fayetteville’s city manager and deputy city manager to develop the parking lot to support public safety.
When the partnership with the city ended in 2015, Cassell said, Fleishman recognized that “the history of North Carolina’s Black citizens needs to be told truthfully.”
Cassell said Fleishman was also inspired by Charles Chesnutt, a Black Fayetteville author during the late 1800s.
Cassell said Fleishman again met with local leaders a few years ago to develop an “audacious project” equivalent to the National Museum of African American History and Culture and a must-see stop on Civil Rights tours.
What could a Black Voices Museum look like?
Roger Smith, principal and design director with architect Gensler, offered a first look at the museum’s proposed design, which was created using community feedback.
“The engagement was important for how the vision of the project started to evolve over time. The idea of honoring and preserving Fayetteville’s Black community’s rich history and culture — essential,” Smith said.
Smith said that the goal is to create a landmark institution for the state and nation through a dynamic center for history, education, storytelling and social equity that “inspires the voices of all generations” and “uplifts every one of those voices to pave the way to a more equitable future.”
He said that based on input, four priorities were identified to ensure the museum features arts and culture, a center for social equity, an empowerment hub to advance progress and the creation of a haven for healing.
Community members who attended the three work sessions shared ideas from other African American museums in the country that could inspire the Fayetteville museum, which are the Legacy Museum in Montgomery, Alabama; the Newark Community Museum for Social Justice in New Jersey; the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C.; the Harvey Gantt Center for African American Arts and Culture in Charlotte; the International African American Museum in Charleston, South Carolina; and the Reginald Lewis Museum and the Impact Hub, both in Baltimore.
Smith said the concept he presented was inspired by community discussions and the hymn, “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” which is known as the Black national anthem.
He shared renderings that showed each of the museum’s galleries above each other, to create a lifting-up effect for visitors.
“What if we could create a space where those voices and the contributions from activists and civic leaders, of writers and poets and scholars and artists and musicians, soldiers, shop owners, grandmothers, grandfathers and their descendants could be elevated to tell the stories of Black experience and its larger contribution to the American experience?” Smith asked.
A metal screen that wraps around the museum’s facade would feature the words to “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” and cast shadows during the day when illuminated.
“That’s our initial vision about the possibilities for this incredible institution. We think we can bring light, and spirit and meaning and history to elevate all of our voices,” Smith said. “We think it’s an important contribution. This is the very early ideas about what it can be and what it ultimately can be through the engagement of all of you to become a reality.”
How much will it cost?
Reginald Truxon, a senior associate and design manager for Gensler, said that planning is still in the early stages.
“It is the visitor experience that’s going to make and break this,” Truxon said.
He said that the concept presented Sept. 30 is for an 83,000-square-foot building that could cost between $175 million and $215 million, with construction starting in 2029 and completion in 2031.
Based on whether the museum has 150,000 visitors annually and events that generate more visits, he estimated the annual income to be about $2.2 million, with an operating cost of $3.7 million that would need to be offset with grants and community fundraisers.
Truxon said the museum could generate 1,100 construction jobs and 243 jobs annually while also creating business development and increasing property values downtown.
During the meeting, resident Carmella McKellar-Smith asked whether a decision had been made to move the project forward.
Evans said, “Not just yet.”
McKellar-Smith asked whether the museum is for the state or Fayetteville, who its target audience is and whether there is government buy-in.
Cassell said McKellar-Smith’s questions are ones that the project team hopes will be addressed by subject matter experts at future meetings.
As for the museum’s cost, he said that it would primarily be financed by private fundraising.
“As we get to next phases, we expect to learn a lot more,” Cassell said.
Residents who have suggestions for the museum can visit blackvoicesmuseum.com/contact.
Staff writer Rachael Riley can be reached at rriley@fayobserver.com or 910-286-3528.
