Resources
Currently this is a list built on chronological opportunities and resources as determined by board and group members.
Want to learn more? Start here.
April 2023
The National Historic Landmarks Program is pleased to announce the release of a new theme study, African American Outdoor Recreation, which examines how race impacted the experience of and access to outdoor recreation and leisure resources for African American people in the United States from the end of the Civil War through the early 21st century. Led by the legacy Midwest Regional Office Historic Preservation Partnerships Program and prepared through a partnership with Organization of American Historians (OAH), the study also includes typologies of related property types such as resorts, amusement parks, campgrounds, or beaches, and registration guidelines to identify and evaluate surviving examples for further study as potential NHLs. By examining this history through the lens of race and from the perspective of Black people, African American Outdoor Recreation brings together the histories of recreation and civil rights in the United States and sheds further light on central themes in the Black experience in the United States.
https://www.nps.gov/subjects/nationalhistoriclandmarks/loader.cfm?csModule=security/getfile&PageID=7475063
February 2023
Hyrum Museum showcasing Black history in Utah in new exhibit (Cache Valley Daily, February 9, 2023)
February is Black History Month and you can learn more about Utah’s Black veterans at the grand opening of a traveling exhibit at the Hyrum City Museum. On KVNU’s For the People program on Wednesday, museum director Jami Van Huss told us more about it.
A Safe Space (SLC City Weekly, February 2, 2023)
Remembering Salt Lake City’s Nettie Gregory Center and the African American community that built it.
January 2023
Black Latter-day Saints express their faith and their wrestles with racism in the church (The Salt Lake Tribune, January 3, 2023)
This new Deseret Book publication doesn’t sugarcoat the challenges these members face, sometimes from those with whom they share a pew. [Story features Sema Hadithi’s Alice Burch!]
December 2022
The "Urgent and Sacred Mission" of Saving Black History Sites (National Trust for Historic Preservation)
Mellon Foundation president and Pulitzer Prize-nominated poet, author, and scholar Elizabeth Alexander discusses the significance of the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund.
November 2022
Add Your Name to Support Preserving Emmett Till and Mamie Till Mobley’s Legacy
In August 1955, 14-year-old Emmett Till left his home in Chicago to visit family in the Mississippi Delta, where he was abducted and lynched on August 28. Emmett’s death might have gone unnoticed by the general public if not for the courage of his mother, Mamie Till Mobley, who decided to “let the world see what I have seen” by holding an open-casket visitation and funeral for her son at Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ in Chicago.
Emmett’s murder shocked the conscience of the nation and illuminated the reality of racial violence in America. The proceeding trial of J.W. Milam and Roy Bryant for Emmett’s murder, held at the Tallahatchie County Courthouse in Sumner, Mississippi, also demonstrated the injustice of the time.
We at the National Trust for Historic Preservation believe that the sites connected to Emmett Till and Mamie Till Mobley should be memorialized in perpetuity. Through national monument designation, these places can serve as a pathway for education, racial healing, and progress.
Since 2017, the National Trust’s African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund has invested nearly $500,000 in grant funding for the critical stabilization of Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ, along with the expansion of programming and paid staff at the Emmett Till Interpretive Center in Sumner, Mississippi and the Emmett Till and Mamie Till Mobley House in Chicago.
Add your name to those calling for the establishment of a national monument honoring Emmett Till and Mamie Till Mobley.
Black Heritage Preservation Program works to honor Black history throughout Indiana
A new program is working to boost efforts to preserve, protect and recognize Black history in the Hoosier state.
Public Archaeology in African American Communities
On the evening of December 6, Bill White (a rad archaeologist from Berkeley) will be speaking on Public Archaeology in African American Communities. Please share this with anyone else you think might be interested!
Elaborately Constructed LEGO Universes by Artist Ekow Nimako Envision an Afrofuturistic World
https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2021/04/ekow-nimako-building-black/
https://kottke.org/21/04/building-black-ekow-nimakos-all-black-lego-sculptures
August 2022
The Spark and the Flame: The Circle of Preserving Black History - National Trust for Historic Preservation
The Kongo cosmogram is a diagram that describes the passage of time as understood by the BaKongo people of Central Africa. This circle, or dikenga, outlines the turning of the universe, the passage of time and the cycles humans move through as they move through their evolutions on Earth. Starting with the rising of the sun and birth in the East, the dikenga moves through stages of growth, becoming fully realized in the universe, aging and growing wiser, eventually ending with death and ancestral transformation. The dikenga is not a simple relic of the past, but an understanding that many Black people share about the concept of time.
Grants available for historic Black churches - deadline September 2, 2022
Do you know a historic Black church that needs funding to strengthen its capital, staffing, and operations? Let them know that they may be eligible for a Preserving Black Churches grant, a new preservation project from the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund. Grants from Preserving Black Churches are intended to preserve historic Black houses of worship (with either active or non-active congregations) and advance ongoing preservation activities.With grants ranging from $50,000 to $200,000, the funding will help historic congregations, preservation organizations, and community groups better steward, manage, and use their historic structures. The first step to apply for a grant from Preserving Black Churches is to submit a Letter of Intent (LOI). The LOI submission process is officially open. Submit your online application by Friday, September 2, 2022. If accepted, a full application will be requested.
June 2022
Public invited to see new monument honoring Black pioneers at This is the Place Heritage Park
The new monument will be unveiled and dedicated on July 22.
Get the details HERE.
BIG unveils new images of National Juneteenth Museum: Texas education and community centre commemorating abolition of slavery will cost $70m.
Bjarke Ingels Group has revealed new images of the practice’s plans for a National Juneteenth Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, which will commemorate the abolition of slavery. Read more here.
Hinchliffe Stadium’s Comeback is a Home Run
In 2010 Hinchliffe Stadium was listed as one of the National Trust's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places. As of April 2022 the site is well on its way to its final transformation as a major mixed use development project that includes a museum, restaurant, stadium, and affordable housing led by developer Baye Adolfo-Wilson, a Patterson Native who secured historic tax credits to fund this project (with total development at nearly $100 million) with an expected completion date of late 2023. Read more here.
How One Preservationist Is Bridging Black History with Black Futures
A National Trust Preservationist Makes Oprah’s List of Black Visionaries. Oprah Daily’s Future Rising, a list of Black trailblazers, included Brent Leggs, Executive Director of the National Trust’s African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund. Learn about the path he took to become a preservationist.
https://www.veranda.com/luxury-lifestyle/a40062686/brent-leggs-black-preservation-interview/
Podcast: The First Black Archaeologist, John Wesley Gilbert
There have been many foundational people in archaeology and the life and achievements of one are now fully coming to light with a new book from Oxford University Press. The First Black Archaeologist: A Life of John Wesley Gilbert (Oxford University Press 2022), written by Dr. John W. I. Lee is a fascinating tale of an archaeologist that paved the way for so many that came after him. Join us as we learn about John Wesley Gilbert, the first Black Archaeologist. John W. I. Lee interview by Chris Webster and Rachel Roden on The Archaeology Show (Archaeology Podcast Network) | Listen Now >>
Explore Historic Sites commemorating Black history in Utah
March 2022
From Coalition for American Heritage - Bill to Preserve African American Burial Grounds…Urge Congressmembers to Cosponsor Bill!
A new bill to help protect and preserve historic African American burial grounds was just introduced in Congress, and your advocacy is critically needed!
The African American Burial Grounds Preservation Act (S. 3667/H.R. 6805), will establish a program at the National Park Service to provide grant opportunities and technical assistance to local partners to research, identify, survey and preserve these cemeteries.
In the Senate, the bipartisan legislation is sponsored by Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT). In the House of Representatives, it is sponsored by Rep. Alma Adams (D-NC), Rep. Don McEachin (D-VA), and Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA).
You can help build support for the African American Burial Grounds Preservation Act (S. 3667/H.R. 6805) by urging your Members of Congress to cosponsor the legislation.
Call or email your elected officials today!
Use our "Call to Action" page for all the information and links you need to make a difference. Remember to include details about historic cemeteries in your community for extra impact!
Blackcraftspeople Digital Archive https://blackcraftspeople.org/
From 1619 to beyond, Black craftspeople, both free and enslaved, worked to produce the valued architecture, handcrafts, and decorative arts of the American South. The Black Craftspeople Digital Archive seeks to enhance what we know about Black craftspeople by telling both a spatial story and a historically informed story that highlights the lives of Black craftspeople and the objects they produced. The first and second phases of this project focus on Black craftspeople living and laboring in the eighteenth-century South Carolina Lowcountry and mid-nineteenth century Tennessee.
February 2022
State History - BETTYE GILLESPIE: A CIVIL RIGHTS LEADER
https://history.utah.gov/bettye-gillespie-a-civil-rights-leader/
KUTV - Researcher highlights Utah's Black history with Buffalo Soldiers
https://kjzz.com/news/local/researcher-highlights-utahs-black-history-with-buffalo-soldiers
April 2022
Telling the Full History Grants Awarded
To 80 organizations in 39 states (none in Utah) amounting to $2.5 million
https://savingplaces.org/neh-telling-full-history
Oral History Project Captures Black Voices in South Carolina
"Black Carolinians Speak: Portraits of a Pandemic" chronicled more than 100 expressions for the state’s permanent public record.https://savingplaces.org/stories/oral-history-project-in-south-carolina-captured-the-african-american-perspective-of-the-coronavirus
December 2021
Black pioneers’ role in Mormon migration to gain recognition, The Salt Lake Tribune, December 12, 2021
Movement rises to protect and preserve Black churches and history around the country
PENNYTOWN, Mo. — It’s easy to overlook a place with "penny" in its name.
But Joe Penny is not a coin but a creator. And the town in his name is a crucible of history, contained in a one-floor church.
“When I come to this church, I walk in, and I see and feel and hear my ancestors," said Clarence Lawrence, one of the few remaining descendants of the town known as Pennytown.
Pennytown Freewill Baptist Church is the last building standing from Pennytown, Missouri. Lawrence is working to keep its history alive.
“Everybody wants to know where they came from," Lawrence said. "People that don’t know anything about their history can come right here and put their finger on it.”
This town, named for a Penny, was born after the Civil War. Joe Penny bought eight acres of land from a white farmer for $160. He divided up the land – and the acres around it – among newly freed Black Americans.
“What was unique about Pennytown is that the Pennytowners actually owned their own property," Lawrence said. “The homes that they built were from barns of local white residents. They had to put newspaper in the walls for insulation. Some of the homes had dirt floors.”
Men worked on white farms. Women worked in white homes. Children took a bus 20 miles to the nearest high school. But for the residents of Pennytown, owning their homes and praying in their own church were early steps to taking control of their story and their lives.
“For African-American communities, very often the narrative has been controlled by people who live outside of those communities," said Dr. Douglas Flowe, a professor at Washington University in St. Louis.
Efforts have begun in 2021 to take the narrative back. The National Trust for Historic Preservation has raised $50 million to protect overlooked symbols of Black society. This summer the group announced $3 million in grants for 40 Black communities. For every Denver and Cleveland, for every Kansas City and St. Louis, there’s a Luther, Oklahoma or Hardin, Kentucky: places whose voices and stories are fading.
A similar grant is the only reason Pennytown’s one building still stands.
“It’s important to save the church because that was the only thing that was left," said Lawrence. "I mean, that was it. That’s all we had. We had to save it.”
Josephine Lawrence, Clarence’s mother, secured a federal partnership decades ago to make the church a historic landmark. Today, her son maintains it as a museum.
Pennytown never became Kansas City or St. Louis. It was too small and too far removed to stick around once big cities called. But in the decades of its heyday, this town named for a Penny did exactly what its community needed, and more. It still does today, through its last building standing.
“The feeling that you get here is just, for me, so powerful," said Lawrence. "And we want to preserve that.”
Race and Space - Hidden Histories Revealed
The Cultural Landscape Foundation, December 2021
Grants Now Available: African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund
The African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund provides grants ranging from $50,000 to $150,000. Last year, more than $3 million in grants to 40 sites and organizations were awarded from the Alabama African American Civil Rights Consortium in Birmingham to the City of Sacramento in California. Learn more about the 2021 grantees.
The Action Fund supports projects focused on African American cultural heritage, and can include: Capital Projects, Organizational Capacity Building, Project Planning, and Programming and Interpretation. Apply today.
There is a two-step process to receive a grant from the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund. The first step, a Letter of Intent (LOI), must be submitted by Friday, January 14, 2022 at 11:59 PM local time, through our online grants portal. If the LOI is accepted, a full application will be requested of the applicant. Grant awards will be announced in July 2022.
National Trust funding is available exclusively to nonprofits and public agencies, and any applicants who are invited to submit a full application will be required to also be Forum members of the National Trust for Historic Preservation at the Organizational level.
The National Trust has many grant programs that may be of interest to you. You can read more about other funding opportunities on our website. If you have any additional questions, please feel free to email the National Trust Grants Department at grants@savingplaces.org.
October 2021
The Cleveland Restoration Society (CRS) has been working on the Cleveland African American Civil Rights Trail for several years and was recently awarded a grant from the National Park Service to continue this work. CRS is working with partners, scholars, and others to identify, research, and document significant sites related to the struggle for Civil Rights. Ten markers will be created to showcase the sites. In addition to the traditional markers, interactive tools and maps are being developed, as is a companion website. The project logo was designed so that it can be adapted for other communities in Ohio as additional sites and cities build on this effort.
The Preservation Society of Charleston created an "interactive research and mapping initiative" called the Charleston Justice Journey. It "highlights sites significant to African American history in Charleston and our city's ongoing journey toward racial equity."
A New Series from the National Trust: Reconsidering Celebrations at Sites of Enslavement
“Reconsidering Celebrations at Sites of Enslavement” is a six-part series that explores the history of places of enslavement among National Trust Historic Sites and recent efforts taken by the National Trust to ethically steward and interpret those sites for visitors. Explore the entrenched meaning behind these places and how the historic preservation field continues to address the challenges of presenting the full story. READ MORE HERE
How the Word Is Passed: A Conversation with Clint Smith
In Clint Smith’s new book, How the Word Is Passed, the poet travels across the country to take readers on a tour of eight historical places that play to our present understanding of who we are as Americans—especially Black Americans. Read an interview with Smith to learn about the power of words and the power of place. LEARN MORE
New Grant Opportunity for Underrepresented Places: Telling the Full History Preservation Fund
The National Trust for Historic Preservation has launched Telling the Full History Preservation Fund, a one-time grant program will provide $25,000 and $50,000 grants for humanities-based work to interpret and preserve historic places of importance to underrepresented communities including, but not limited to, women, immigrants, Asian Americans, Black Americans, Latinx Americans, Native Americans, and LGBTQA communities.
Made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities’ American Rescue Plan Humanities Grantmaking for Organizations, Telling the Full History Preservation Fund grant applications will be accepted starting November 2021. To receive updates, join our grants interest list.
Applications will be accepted from 501(c)(3) nonprofit humanities-based organizations, accredited public and 501(c)(3) colleges and universities, as well as state, local, and Tribal governmental agencies. Funding will be awarded in the following categories:
• Research, planning, and implementation of interpretation programs
• Research and documentation for local, state, and federal landmark designations
• Architectural design and planning to preserve and activate places of diversity
• Training workshops to support preservation and interpretation of places of diversity
Telling the Full History Preservation Fund grants aim to support the core activities of humanities-based organizations as these organizations recover from the pandemic and use historic places as catalysts for a more just and equitable society. Along with the grant funding, National Trust staff will provide technical assistance to grantees.
To learn more, visit https://forum.savingplaces.org/tellingthefullhistoryfund.
The 2021 Pennsylvania Hallowed Grounds Annual Meeting "Reclaiming African-American Cemeteries in your Community" will be held Saturday October 23, 2021 virtually from 10 AM – 3 PM. The program includes a Keynote presentation by the new director of the Penn Museum, Dr. Christopher Woods. Other speakers will present on advocacy, the role of archaeology as well as updates from cemetery stewards across the commonwealth.
All who are interested in cemetery conservation are invited to attend the meeting. The meeting is offered at no cost. However, to join the meeting online you must register in advance. To register go to: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/pa-hallowed-grounds-tickets-170206573443 or you can go to Facebook at this link: www.facebook.com/PAHallowedGrounds
August 2021
Africatown (AL) hiring Executive Director
We would also like to announce that the Africatown Heritage Preservation Foundation (AHPF) in Mobile, AL is recruiting for its first Executive Director! The attached PDF contains the recruitment letter and the job description. Please feel free to forward, post, and distribute this announcement widely. The job description is also posted on the AHPF website at http://africatownhpf.org/. Qualified candidates may submit their letter of application and resume by September 1, 2021 to angela@africatownhpf.org.
Pioneering Black Architects in North Carolina (North Carolina Modernist Houses)
There were very few Black architects in North Carolina before 1970. It was tough enough for white women in a white-male-dominated profession, but for minorities it was nearly impossible. There were almost none for decades. By 1950 there were only two Black architects registered in North Carolina. By 1980 the number increased to only 65 out of a total of 1909. Even by 1993, Blacks made up only 7.5% of national members of the American Institute of Architects (AIA).
This series profiles the North Carolina pioneers who followed their hearts into architecture despite substantial resistance from both society and industry. There are still relatively few in North Carolina. There are no women on this list because there were no female Black architects before 1970. It was not until 1990 that Danita Brown became the first Black woman licensed to practice architecture in North Carolina. She was one of the first thirty in the entire United States.
Black People, Porches and Politics (Places Journal)
This reading list primarily focuses on the investigation of black domesticity. The search for positive identity politics in architecture has typically proven empty for this racial group. Architecture has always excelled at using the built environment to convey narratives. Unfortunately, that opportunity has rarely materialized in African-American communities. Providing access to narratives undiscovered and often neglected, one can begin to understand and empathize with marginalized communities. The porch is an iconic architectural feature that explores topics of gender, race, and production. While there have been numerous scholarly articles and critical dissections which focus on its legacy, this list contextualizes them from the perspective of spatializing blackness. Additionally it utilizes the kitchen and kitchenette as a lens to view issues of racism, classism, and gender politics. Racism continues to be the most divisive social issue in modern society and the role of architecture in this debate is a missing component of the conversation.
(San Antonio Conservation)
I just wanted to share the link to the two videos we did on the first peaceful and voluntary integration of lunch counters during the 1960 Sit-In movement. These videos were co-sponsored by the San Antonio African American Community Archive and Museum with funding from Humanities Texas and World Monuments Fund. Just as we released the videos, we learned our five-year campaign to save the Woolworth Building – the most significant of the sites – had succeeded! https://www.saconservation.org/sit-ins_tx/
July 2021
African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund Grants Announcement (National Trust for Historic Preservation)
I’m delighted to share the news that today we’ve announced the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund’s investment of $3 million to 40 new Action Fund grantees. Thanks to The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, MacKenzie Scott, and other funders, the Fund is doubling its grant-making this year. Since the first round of grants in July 2018, we’ve invested $7.3 million in 105 preservation projects nationwide.
I also want to take this opportunity to congratulate Brent Leggs, executive director of the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund, on this fantastic new group of grantees and thank him for his tireless dedication to preserving, elevating, and activating places like these, whose stories are an essential part of American history and whose powerful legacies of achievement and activism are highly relevant today. Thanks as well to the colleagues across the National Trust and the partners across the country who collaborate with us to support this vitally important work.
Please see below a few links from this morning’s announcement.
Video announcement featuring Brent at one of the 2021 grantees, Asbury United Methodist Church in Washington, DC https://youtu.be/-sgmW4KHPlo
Press release https://savingplaces.org/fund-to-save-african-american-landmarks-announces-2021-grants
AACHAF webpage/story of 40 grantees https://savingplaces.org/2021-action-fund-grant-recipients
The National Historic Landmarks Program recently announced the release of a new theme
study, Civil Rights in America: Racial Discrimination in Housing. This study by Matthew D. Lassiter and Susan Cianci Salvatore, prepared in cooperation with the Organization of American Historians (OAH) and National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers (NCSHPO), is the fourth in a five-part Civil Rights in America series which uses the provisions of 1960s civil rights acts as a framework. The study examines the history of housing discrimination against African American, Latinx, American Indian, and Asian American people leading to passage of the Fair Housing Act of 1968. As always, the historic context developed here can be useful when preparing National Register nominations. This and other NHL Theme Studies are available for download at www.nps.gov/subjects/nationalhistoriclandmarks/recent-theme-studies.htm
Join Goucher College's MA in Historic Preservation program on Saturday, July 31 for our Virtual Preservation Forum: Preserving Place in a Rapidly Changing World. Register by July 20 and be entered for a chance to win a package of three relevant ebooks. Register here: ow.ly/pA5F50FvW7D More details at ow.ly/PcDf50FvW7C
The African American Heritage Preservation Foundation has created a free mobile app "African American Sites," that is available through The App Store and Google Play.
The African American Sites app features more than 1,600 African American Sites located throughout the United States and Territories that include Heritage Trails, Military Sites, Museums, National Historic Landmarks, National Register of Historic Places, Endangered Historic Places and other historic places that focus on the rich contributions of African Americans to our nation's history.
It is also available on the web - African American Sites
Please let us know if you have sites in your community that we should consider adding to this app.
Warm regards,
E. Renee Ingram
President and Founder
Washington, DC
ringram@aahpfdn.org
June 2021
Glass House Presents: Life, Ebony, and Modernism in 1950s America
In this virtual talk based on her new book, scholar Kristina Wilson will examine the presence of modern design in Life and Ebony magazines in the 1950s. Through a deep dive into advertising images and editorial content, she will explore how modern design appeared in each magazine as well as discuss how codes of race, gender, and identity influenced — and were influenced by — modern design in these mass media landscapes.
Free registration here
Juneteenth Virtual Book Talk with Glenda Armand (June 10)
Join Glenda Armand, dedicated author of picture book biographies, as she discusses "Love Twelve Miles Long"
Free registration here
The Avondale Burial Place and the African American Burial Grounds Network
Thank you for joining us for “The Avondale Burial Place and the African American Burial Grounds Network” with Dr. Joe Joseph! He presented an incredible, touching story of the Avondale Burial Place and the work archaeologists did to connect people to their ancestors and history, and he shared with us some great resources to ensure that African American burial grounds and others stay protected. If y ou missed our live event, or want to rewatch it, you can find the videos on our Utah SHPO YouTube or our Facebook page. Subscribe and follow for more videos on the topic of archaeology, history, and historic preservation. You can also find us on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and our archaeology blog if you just can’t get enough!
For more information about how to preserve abandoned burial grounds in your community, visit: https://sha.org/resources/abandoned-burial-grounds/
The African American Burial Grounds Network Bill in the 116th Congress can be viewed here: https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/1179/all-info (a revised bill will be reintroduced to the new Congress)
If you are interested in genealogy research or just cemeteries in general Utah State History maintains a searchable database of Utah burial records and cemeteries. Visit history.utah.gov/cemeteries.
If you are interested in historic preservation of cemeteries you will also find extensive information on how to properly clean headstones. Our staff conduct workshops to provide hands-on experience with proper preservation methods to reset and restore headstones in order to not lose this important history.
And if you want to follow reporter Paul Guzzo at the Tampa Bay Times, who reports on lost Black cemeteries, you can find his work here: https://www.tampabay.com/author/paul-guzzo/
Thanks again for joining us for this special event, and another huge thanks to Dr. Joseph for sharing his amazing work with us. The video link once more:https://youtu.be/kKx3fgl-kEI
May 2021
Dear PastForward 2020 Diversity Scholars and Mentors,
I am pleased to announce that the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund has officially posted a Request for Proposal for the DuPont Research Fellowship for HBCU Cultural Heritage Stewardship Initiative.
Through the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund, the NTHP, Jesse Ball duPont Fund, National Endowment for the Humanities, Ford Foundation, the JPB Foundation, J.M. Kaplan Fund, Executive Leadership Council, Chipstone Foundation, Wunsch Americana Foundation, and James Marston Fitch Charitable Foundation have partnered to pilot the HBCU Cultural Heritage Stewardship Initiative. The partnership seeks to empower HBCUs with the resources to protect, preserve and leverage their historic campuses, buildings, and landscapes, ensuring these academic institutions and symbols of African American pride are preserved to inspire and educate future generations. The Action Fund - HBCU Cultural Heritage Fellow has an interest in African American history, the places that help tell the stories of African American culture, heritage, activism, and achievement and is an individual scholar pursuing projects that embody exceptional research, rigorous analysis, and clear writing.
The fellowship is an 8 month position, with honorarium and expenses provided.
To access the position announcement, please visit https://savingplaces.org/requests-for-proposals and scroll down to RFP # 2021-3. Please submit your information first to access the document. Please direct questions to Tiffany Tolbert at ttolbert@savingplaces.org
Peri Boylan | ASSOCIATE MANAGER, EXECUTIVE OFFICE & PRESERVATION DIVISION
C 817.726.4391 F 202.588.6082
April 2021
Dear VAF Friends and Colleagues:
Some of you will have heard that the The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation awarded VAF (in partnership with UVA) a substantial grant to support a series of new field schools documenting African American places (buildings and cultural landscapes) in partnership with African American communities, institutions, scholars, and students. This is an important and exciting new opportunity and you can find the link to find out more about the program here.
In short, the program will fund three different field schools, each to run for two seasons. Each of the funded field schools will have a leadership team that includes expertise in documentation, African American history and culture, and community engagement. Each field school is expected to build and sustain a relationship of mutual trust and reciprocity with their community partners and to offer public sessions that disseminate the work of the field school back to the community.
If you are interested in applying, please review the website and then reach out to me to share your interest and begin a conversation about designing your proposal.
Best,
Louis Nelson
Century of Black Mormons
https://exhibits.lib.utah.edu/s/century-of-black-mormons/page/welcome
March 2021
The (Idaho) State Historic Preservation Office wants to fill in the blanks on Idaho’s African American story.
https://www.idahopress.com/community/life/the-state-historic-preservation-office-wants-to-fill-in-the-blanks-on-idahos-african-american/article_f227e86f-215e-5586-a479-5139a06622e1.html
The Urbanist Protester (free book)
https://nextcity.org/ebooks/view/the-urbanist-protester/download
February 2021
"The spatial equity recovery makes a just built environment the backbone of our country's long-overdue economic, environmental, and racial justice reset."
https://slate.com/technology/2021/02/infrastructure-biden-spatial-equity.html
IN FOCUS: Black history month discussion
https://www.abc4.com/news/infocus/in-focus-discussion-black-history-month/
The Art of Preservation: Engaging and Amplifying Underrepresented Heritage (Virtual Symposium)
Thank you for your quick reply, I think I needed to give you a little more information that I do have about this women. Some 20 to 25 years ago our Cemetery was put online with Find A Grave and at that time several people looked high and low for who this woman might be and couldn’t find any information about her. They got the Boy Scouts to do a project of putting headstones on any unmarked graves at that time. She has a stone marking her grave. Unfortunately, they could not find her name at that time.
I served as Chairperson for the Herriman Historical Committee for 13 years and did locate a recording of two elderly gentleman talking about a black family living up in Rose Canyon and the fact that after the wife passed away the husband took the family and moved back to Salt Lake City. To my knowledge there has never been any enslaved people living in Herriman/Fort Herriman/Butterfield settlement. This was a very small settlement back in 1851 and everyone knew everyone’s business. In all the years of research we compiled, to publish a book about the community, these were the only African American folks we found.
With my many years of involvement in the Historical Committee I have always wished we had this ladies name and possibly some history on what brought this family to Rose Canyon to live. So when I saw your post I thought why not reach out, possibly there is some new technology, or records that have been found that we missed, or didn’t see.
Now that you have a little more information would you have any suggestion where we might find this family?
From Trails to Timber: Uncovering Black History in Oregon
In the mid 19th century, many Americans looked west for opportunity, fortune, and adventure. However, the seemingly endless opportunities found in Oregon were not extended to Black Americans, as the state’s constitution set exclusion laws that did not allow them to settle, live, or own property. Over time, this led to an erasure of the state’s Black history. Discover how two preservation organizations—Oregon Black Pioneers and Maxville Heritage Interpretive Center— are combatting this legacy of whiteness by bringing untold histories of Black Americans in the Pacific Northwest to light.
How redlining has shaped our cities and increased the racial divide in America
January 2021
Racial justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion resources
http://massnonprofitnet.org/nonprofit-resources/racial-justice-diversity-equity-inclusion-resources/
The Atlantic: Inheritance
https://www.theatlantic.com/inheritance/
Wikipedia: A history of slavery in Utah
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_slavery_in_Utah
June 2020
Brent Legg’s interview with Phylicia Rashad about the power of historic places and the importance of the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund
Bunk Johnson Out of the Shadows by Ifa Bayeza, the story of jazz legend Bunk Johnson (Ifa is now completing her second NEA-funded project with us, leading our community playwrighting workshop.)