Joseph McGill, founder of The Slave Dwelling Project, has spent countless nights sleeping in historic slave quarters across the United States on a mission to bring awareness for the preservation of slave dwellings. “You get inside these walls and you think about that time of slavery and wonder what went through these people’s minds,” he said in a 2010 interview with NPR. McGill is gearing up this month for his third annual Slave Dwelling Project Conference to be held from Sept. 19th through the 21st in Columbia, South Carolina. The conference is part of his continued effort to educate, advocate and rally support to save these structures from erasure.
All over the country, citizens such as McGill have become increasingly vigilant toward preserving historical black sites and landmarks. With the opening of the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., planned for Sept. 24, the focus on the preservation of our history is as timely as it is necessary.
Here are a few areas across the nation where preservation efforts are currently under way:
Albuquerque, New Mexico
African-American civil rights advocate and 1950 Nobel Peace Prize winner Ralph Bunche attended school in Albuquerque. Though funding is limited, efforts are being made to create markers to document his life there and save other historic civil rights sites in the city.
Atlanta, Georgia
With gentrification claiming two historic Atlanta churches to make way for the Falcon‘s billion dollar stadium in 2014, the Atlanta Preservation Center kicked into high gear promoting the preservation of the city’s architecturally, historically and culturally significant buildings, neighborhoods and landscapes. The organization’s Advocacy Coalition tracks and highlights endangered sites across the city.
Fort Pierce, Florida
In February of this year, the city of Fort Pierce kicked off the Zora Neale Hurston Dust Tracks Heritage Trail to commemorate the life of the renowned novelist who spent her last years there. The eight-point tour, which aims to draw African-American tourists, includes stops at Hurston’s home, the high school where she taught, the newspaper where she worked as a reporter and the gravesite and headstone purchased by Pulitzer-Prize-winning author Alice Walker to adorn Hurston’s then unmarked grave.
The trail also includes stops commemorating the life of Alfred Hair, who lead a group of self-taught black landscape artists who would later become known as The Florida Highwaymen. The work of these artists, who traveled and went door-to-door selling their art, are now highly sought collectors items.
Harlem, New York
These artists are banding together and raising funds to lease and renovate the Harlem brownstone where Langston Hughes lived in order to preserve the legacy of the poet, activist, novelist and playwright.
Portsmouth, New Hampshire
The home where the former slave of Martha Washington (Ona Marie Judge) lived after escaping by ship, as well as the home of famous black opera singer, Nellie Brown Mitchell, stand in unmarked obscurity in New Hampshire. The house that inspired the 1859 book of Harriet Wilson, the country’s first African-American novelist and author, still stands unmarked on the edge of Milford. In light of this, some scholars and activists in New Hampshire are forming a non-profit with a goal of marking and preserving these sites to create a historic trail.
“Black history in the state remains invisible and unheralded,” said JerriAnne Boggis, director of the Portsmouth Black Heritage Trail in an interview with The Chronicle Journal. “It speaks to the invisibility of a culture and the importance that it plays. If we don’t recognize a culture, then we aren’t recognizing what it means to be American.”
The work of preserving our historic landmarks is not only necessary, but profitable. Black travelers spend an average of $48 billion per year on U.S. travel alone. According to a study released by Mandala Research, locations rich in cultural heritage make for choice domestic destinations to attract the black tourist dollar. Cities are beginning to take note as black heritage trails are springing up all over the country. In the Northeast alone, trails have been established in Vermont, Portland, Maine and Boston among other locations.
If you’re interested in helping to save African-American heritage in your hometown or community, the National Trust for Historic Preservation has published a toolkit offering tips and case studies to help with these efforts.
