The New Orleans African American Museum was supposed to be an anchor for revitalizing the historic Treme neighborhood. Instead, its shuttered, blighted buildings have been like weighted anchors, holding the area back.
And now, the latest effort to save the 30-year-old institution has hit another bump as investors who stepped in to save the museum are now suing its board of directors.
Treme Guardian, a group led by businessman and philanthropist John Cummings, sued the New Orleans African American Museum in Orleans Parish Civil District Court this month, alleging the museum has not made any payments on a $1 million promissory note, failed to carry proper insurance on its historic properties and let them fall into more disrepair.
The five historic buildings between Gov. Nicholls Street and Ursulines Avenue were already blighted when Cummings’ group tried to come to the rescue last November. Cummings opened the first plantation museum dedicated to slavery at the Whitney Plantation in 2014.
He saw the African American Museum’s struggles in Treme and wanted to keep it in local hands, so Treme Guardian purchased its defaulted loan directly from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. after it had seized the assets of defunct First NBC Bank.
Cummings’ group forgave hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees and interest from the loan, set up a 3-year payment plan for the African American Museum to pay off the $1 million principal and required it to secure and insure the property.
But the lawsuit alleges the museum does not carry the proper insurance and has allowed the blight to worsen, with the city’s Historic District Landmarks Commission citing three of the buildings for Demolition by Neglect in April.
Cummings said he’s still hoping to negotiate with the museum board so it can get back on its feet.
“I’m optimistic,” Cummings said. “We have a meeting with the museum board this Friday to discuss a settlement. I think we can work out a reasonable settlement.”
But neighbors are getting tired of the charity and second chances. They complain there have been few if any consequences for the museum’s sprawling blight and wasted resources.
As WWL-TV detailed in its 2017 investigation, the museum has wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayer money in the five years since it was last open for business. A $3 million grant from the city was used entirely on demolishing and rebuilding a house on the other side of Governor Nicholls Street to serve as an administration building.
The building remains empty and unused a year later. Audits have established that more than $100,000 of the grant went to an architect who had to be replaced. The city cited contractors for using undocumented workers on the project.
And yet, the city deemed the museum in compliance because it eventually built the administration building. City officials told WWL-TV last year that the building’s lack of use now that it’s finished is irrelevant to compliance with the grant.
Meanwhile, none of the historic museum structures across the street has been renovated and the cost to do so ballooned from $6 million to at least $15 million, the museum’s board told WWL-TV last year.
The loan that Cummings and his group tried to rescue has been another mess. Trumpeter Irvin Mayfield stepped down from the African American Museum board in 2015 after WWL-TV exposed his transfer of more than $1 million from another board he ran at the city’s library charity to his jazz orchestra.
But he was brought back as African American Museum board chairman in 2016 and helped secure the First NBC loan. A few weeks later, in July 2016, he was forced to resign for good from both the African American Museum board and his own jazz orchestra when WWL-TV discovered his use of library donations to pay for a gold-plated trumpet, limousines, liquor and lavish hotel stays.
Then, in May 2017, First NBC went under in the largest U.S. bank collapse since the 2008 financial crisis. The African American Museum’s loan seemed likely to be auctioned off to an out-of-town buyer, who could have seized the property. That’s when Cummings decided to step in.
Michael Griffin, the current chairman of the African American Museum board, was not available to comment Monday. He declined to comment to The Advocate last week about pending litigation.
David Hammer can be reached at dhammer@wwltv.com.