A major abolitionist museum in Lawrence is still possible and area leaders should form a committee of nationally-known historians to begin pre-planning for the possibility, Sen. Sam Brownback said Tuesday.
Brownback, a leading advocate in Congress to create a national museum to highlight the abolitionist movement, was in Lawrence for a private meeting with Lawrence Chamber of Commerce officials and other invited city, county and university leaders.
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Brownback said he told the group now was the best time to begin serious planning for the museum to give Lawrence the best chance of being chosen as the site if funding materializes.
"I think Lawrence has great potential for this," Brownback said. "But I would sure advise the community to get out ahead of the curve. It needs to be putting together a committee of a national scale.
"It needs to get some key national historians working with the community to tell us how to tell this story."
Brownback said federal funding for the museum hasn't been secured, but he expects the project to pick up momentum on Capitol Hill during the next few years. The project, which has no cost estimate, likely would also need local funding.
"I think the chances still look good," Brownback said. "It may be a couple of years in the making yet, but it still looks good."
Lawrence likely would not be the only city interested in landing the museum, which area tourism officials have said could make the city a national tourist destination.
"There will be a lot of communities who will say they are where the abolitionist movement started," Brownback said. "But Lawrence is certainly where the movement was galvanized. Blood was spilled here.
"Lawrence will have to market itself, though, because there will be more densely populated communities, especially on the East Coast, that will lobby hard for this designation."
Judy Billings, director of the Lawrence Convention and Visitors Bureau, is a member of a 15-person committee that has been meeting monthly on the subject since last spring.
"I would hope that we are doing the type of things that would put us out front," Billings said. "I was very pleased that the senator is still very interested in the project. We didn't have to bring the subject up to him. He brought it up to us."
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