The struggle to establish the African American Heritage Museum & Cultural Center at Colman School has been going on for eleven years, but, according to Earl Debnam, ex-officio President and a founder of the museum, the real work has just begun.
In December of 1995 Mr. Debnam, who led the occupation of the Colman site for its 10 year duration, was relieved of his office. Eventually he was removed from the board altogether by members he had helped to select.
"I wasn't even given a chance to present my side of things." Said Mr. Debnam. "The move was totally unfounded and completely out of order." In the December 13th meeting board member Harolyn Bobis simply raised her hand and called for Mr. Debnam's removal from the presidency. The motion was seconded and Mr. Debnam found himself relegated to the sidelines of an organization he had conceived of and given birth to with ten years of agonizing labor. In an effort to get a hearing of his side of the story Mr. Debnam wrote several letters to The Board, the Mayor's Office, and the press but not one of his letters was answered. Within two months, citing the fact that Mr. Debnam had begun legal procedures against the Board - thus making his presence counter-productive - he was removed from the board completely.
"Earl put an incredible amount of heart and soul into projects, but it got to the point where the board needed different people." Said Deniece Hunt, who was the liason between the Mayor's office and the nascent Heritage Museum during its ten-year occupation of the Colman School. "It took a combative personality like Earl's to get things started, but with a board of 33 we needed not to be fighting, we needed someone more conciliatory."
Mr. Debnam said that he did not want to compromise on the grassroots integrity that he saw as the foundation for the Museum. He felt that current chairman Bob Flowers did not fully appreciate this component of the project.
By the time Mr. Flowers joined the effort, the Museum Board had been together for just under a year. A large and diverse group, they had managed to work out their organizational structure and they had also become a community with mutual respect all around the table, according to Mr. Debnam.
Shortly after Mr. Flowers joined the board Mr. Debnam said he began hearing from individuals on the board that Mr. Flowers "had said he was in charge". He ignored these rumors, until the two met to review a proposed agenda for the board's December meeting, where it became clear that there was a strong difference of opinion. Each man brought his own agenda.
One agenda for the meeting was prepared by the executive council of the board, of which both Mr. Debnam and Mr. Flowers were members, but whose meetings Mr. Flowers did not attend. According to the bylaws of the organization the preparation of the meeting agendas are the responsibility of the Executive council. Mr. Flowers shelved his agenda and the two agreed to present the issue to the board. It was at the very next meeting that Mr. Debnam, "Out of the blue" was removed from the presidency by a vote of the board.
Other plans were on the horizon for an executive retreat to discuss how Mr. Flowers and Mr. Debnam could work together to take the project forward.
While Mr. Debnam claims responsibility for many of the funding ideas that the Board has now put into effect, the board, especially Chairman Flowers, has been critical of Mr. Debnam's personality and some of his independent efforts at publicizing the Heritage Museum. When Debnam printed up a flyer and distributed it at the funeral of a Central District dignitary, there were admonishments from Bob Flowers, who felt the flyer, which contained spelling errors, should have been reviewed and approved by the board.
"I want to make sure that the community viewpoint is at the table," said Mr. Debnam, "I want this to be an open process, not something that is going on secretly, downtown."
Practically, however, "In translating his dream into reality Earl tries to make things morally perfect. The Board couldn't stand the pressures of the social interactions...coming home at midnight." Says Ms. Hunt
Ironically, the pressure of these social interactions are part of the reason why a heritage museum is most necessary, and why the process of organizing the museum is so vitally important. A museum that commemorates the history and culture of African Americans should celebrate many things about that history, and a large part of that history is struggle - the struggle of African Americans to bridge gaps while at the same time carving their own place in the wider cultural landscape. There is a balance to be found and it is one that Mr. Debnam still has hopes of achieving in the development of the African American Heritage Museum and Cultural Center Board. It may not be an easy process, but, as he says it can be "a foundation built with some integrity, so that when my daughter is old enough to visit the museum, or take classes there, I can be sure that she will not feel excluded, she can know that here is a place that belongs to her too."
"Whose Museum is This?"
from our January/February 1998 edition.
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Contents on this page were published in the September/October, 1996 edition of the Washington Free Press.
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