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An alumnus of DuBois High School has
sued the national alumni association in
Wake County’s small claims court, asking
his money for a memorial be returned now
that the association will no longer
pursue plans for the National Rosenwald
School Museum.
The alumni president,
Lawrence Eugene Perry, was served with
papers about the suit Saturday during
the traditional Memorial Day meeting.
The kick-off for a campaign
to raise $3 million to renovate the
McElrath Building for the museum and the
Culler Building for a business incubator
was held early last April. Fourth
District Congressman David Price was
present, among many other dignitaries,
and said he and Congressmen Bob
Etheridge and Brad Miller pledged their
help. The effort was also backed by the
grandchildren of Julius Rosenwald, the
CEO of Sears whose donations helped
build schools for black children
throughout the South. The Wake Forest
Graded Colored School opened in 1926.
The effort to build the
museum is one of the casualties in the
ongoing friction between Perry, backed
by the alumni board, and the DuBois
Center’s former director, Bettie
Murchison, who now heads the W.E.B.
DuBois Community Development Corporation
headquartered in downtown Wake Forest.
Perry cancelled the contract
with a fund-raising firm, saying it had
never been hired. He has also reportedly
written to the alumni, saying the board
is “reconsidering” the museum project.
When they say that, Haywood
Massenburg said this week, “it means its
been scrapped.”
Massenburg headed up the
effort to raise funds for the museum
through the sale of memorial bricks,
inscriptions on a granite wall, stars on
a walkway and memorial benches. The
donations ranged from $200 for a brick
to $9,800 for a bench.
Massenburg said he had
warned the board they should repay the
donations, and Joe Evans of Maryland is
the first to legally require repayment.
Perry refused to speak with
the Gazette editor who wanted to know if
there are others asking for repayment
and how much had been raised by the
project. |
