Washington ? Something is missing from the National Mall, says Herndon, Va., pastor Brett Fuller.

When he walks its length, Fuller sees monuments to great presidents, marble parks depicting history-changing events and walls of black granite bringing comfort to relatives of war casualties.

But there’s not a single stone raised to celebrate black accomplishments, he says.

Fuller, who is also chaplain of the Washington Redskins, is attempting to change that by lobbying Congress to authorize a monument in honor of those enslaved in this country. The idea has caught on with a bipartisan contingent in the House, which introduced H.R. 196, the National Slave Memorial Act.

“Where can I go in the nation’s capital to find some kind of historical monument to give honor and dignity to the nation’s slaves?” asked Fuller, who leads a multiracial congregation at Grace Covenant Church in Herndon. “They were the economic backbone of our country for about 250 years. … Somebody needs to say ‘thank you’ and that ‘we recognize your contribution to our country.”‘

Getting space in the nation’s pre-eminent outdoor gallery, however, is not an easy task. It has been tried by dozens of causes. Nearly all failed and had to build their monuments on less famous real estate.

What’s more, last year the Interior Department declared the heart of the Mall, known as the Reserve, a “no-build zone” after a three-year study, said John Parsons, a regional National Park Service director. Officials were concerned it would end up chock-full of bronze and marble if too many memorials were built. Exceptions were made for projects authorized by Congress.

The Mall, Parsons said, “is a completed work of civic art and shouldn’t be messed with.”

In its current form, the Slavery Memorial Act would place the monument inside the Reserve close to the Lincoln Memorial, superseding Interior Department policy. Parsons said he expected that his agency would oppose the bill if it specified a site inside the “no-build zone.”

But Fuller and some of his congressional allies are optimistic the memorial will still end up in the Reserve or just off its borders. They add that they appear to have growing support within the GOP.

The memorial’s backers say they got a boost from Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss. During one of his many apologies in December after he made racially insensitive remarks at Strom Thurmond’s birthday, Lott said: “I’ve been working with a number of African-American leaders to try to get a suitable memorial on the Mall.”

Fuller believes the controversy surrounding Lott, which led to his resignation as Senate Republican leader, gives the project momentum. “This is one of the first ways Republicans can show they are interested in African-American issues,” he said. “Given what happened with Lott, the sensitivity level towards race and America’s conscience toward race has been heightened.”