A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT to appropriate funds for the purchase and restoration of the historic dr. manassa Thomas pope house.
Whereas, Dr. Manassa Thomas Pope, who was born in 1858, became the first African‑American physician to be licensed to practice medicine in the State of North Carolina in 1887, after graduating first in his class from the Leonard School of Medicine at Shaw University; and
Whereas, Dr. Pope served as an officer in the 3rd North Carolina Volunteers, a regiment formed during the Spanish American War and commanded entirely by African‑American officers; and
Whereas, Dr. Pope was one of the State's earliest civil rights leaders, obtaining the right to vote in 1902 and running for the Office of Mayor of the City of Raleigh in 1919; and
Whereas, Dr. Pope and his family lived in a home in the City of Raleigh that was built in 1901; and
Whereas, precious artifacts of Dr. Pope's life have been found in the Pope House, including his voter registration card, which is considered to be the oldest in existence for an African‑American man from the South; and
Whereas, the Pope House is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is an official project of the Save America's Treasures Project; and
Whereas, the Pope House will be the only historic house museum of an African‑American family in the State of North Carolina; and
Whereas, the Dr. M.T. Pope House Museum Foundation has made plans to purchase and restore the Pope House for use as a public museum; Now, therefore,
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.  There is appropriated from the General Fund to Dr. M.T. Pope House Museum Foundation, a nonprofit corporation, the sum of two hundred fifty thousand dollars ($250,000) for the 2005‑2006 fiscal year to assist the organization in purchasing the former home of Dr. Manassa Thomas Pope and restoring it for use as a public museum.
SECTION 2.  This act becomes effective July 1, 2005.