More details on the International Civil Rights Center and Museum’s request for $1.5 million from the City of Greensboro:
The civil rights museum wants $4 million in donations — including $1.5 million in taxpayer money over three years — to underwrite field trips for more than 300,000 children, center officials said Wednesday.
Officials with the International Civil Rights Center and Museum said they’ll use the money to pay students’ way into the museum and cover their travel expenses to get there.
The program is a marketing campaign for the museum, which is struggling financially. Museum board Chairman Melvin “Skip” Alston hopes the project creates a steady stream of students and revenue — and eventually self-sufficiency.
The museum had 57,000 visitors in 2012, so 300,000 school children would be quite an attendance booster. I echo City Council member Zack Matheny we he says he wishes the museum the best and is pulling for it. I’m sentimental about the Woolworth’s building –as I’ve written many times before, I was there in 1990 during the 30th anniversary of the sit-ins when the Greensboro Four recreated that historic moment —the last time they would ever be together in public.
But the museum was promised to be a boost to the city’s economy, not a drain.
