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*Entertainer Bill Cosby is requesting that every citizen of the United States donate $8 to the building of a national slavery museum in Fredricksburg, VA.
Mayor L. Douglas Wilder launched a campaign Friday to raise $100 million toward the $200 million construction of the facility, which would sit near the Rappahannock River on the former battlefields of the Civil War. Cosby joined Wilder in a teleconference Friday to call for some 300 million Americans to give up 8 bucks each to the cause.
"The incentive is that they would join in with the rest of the United States of America in saying yes, as an American, I gave $8 to help build something that tells the story," said Cosby, while conceding that this kind of campaign "generally fails badly."
"But I'm going to try again because I'm going to present this national slavery museum as a jewel that's missing in a crown," he says.
Why $8 dollars?
"The figure 8, in shape, is both of the shackles, which is the symbol of slavery," said Wilder, a former Virginia governor and the grandson of slaves. "If you turn it on its side, it's the symbol of infinite freedom."