Plans to expand the Banneker-Douglass Museum in Annapolis have supporters split over whether it is threatened by construction in Baltimore of the East Coast's largest African-American history museum.

Errol E. Brown Sr., president of the Friends of the Banneker-Douglass Museum, is skeptical that the $6 million, 10,000-square-foot expansion will ever take place in Annapolis, saying it was originally scheduled to begin in 2001 and will be overshadowed when the Baltimore museum is completed.

However, Yevola Peters, president of Banneker-Douglass Museum Foundation Inc., believes the Annapolis expansion will go forward and that the expansion shows a long-term commitment to the museum.

"At this time, I feel that the fears are unfounded," said Peters, a longtime museum advocate. She has been helping to safeguard Banneker-Douglass by getting involved with planning meetings for the Baltimore museum, she said.

Ground was broken Dec. 3 in Baltimore for the $33 million Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture. The 82,000-square-foot structure is set to open in 2004. It will be second in size only to Detroit's African-American history museum.

Part of Banneker-Douglass' collection will be exhibited in the Baltimore museum. Banneker-Douglass lends pieces to the Smithsonian Institution and other museums. Such loans are a common practice in the museum world, said Ed McDonough, spokesman for the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development, which oversees the museum on Franklin Street and its state budget, which was $500,000 for 2002-2003.

Construction on Banneker-Douglass' expansion should begin early next year, McDonough said.

Any dates Brown had heard regarding construction in 2001 or 2002 "would have been estimates," McDonough said. "Banneker-Douglas is not going anywhere. ... It will be preserving African-American artifacts here for years to come."

However, Brown said sharing exhibits with Baltimore and having ties to the larger museum - such as the one Peters is providing - create conflicting allegiances that could leave Banneker-Douglass in danger.

The state's looming $1.2 billion budget gap for the fiscal year that begins July 1 makes the future Baltimore museum more of a threat to Banneker-Douglass, he said. If it comes down to one or the other, he fears, Baltimore's site will win because of its size.

"Can the state afford to have two African-American museums?" he asked.

Peters is confident that the expansion will take place. But she won't let her guard down.

"As African-Americans, we know that we can't go to sleep, or when you awake you find out you don't have what you thought you had," she said. "Our history shows that we have to be very vigilant to make sure that things are going like they need to go."