African American Historic Places Program Landing Page Launched
By Max A. van Balgooy
The African American Historic Places Program of the National Trust is delighted to share this new "landing page" on PreservationNation.org. Designed primarily for persons working to save and interpret African American historic places in the United States, it includes news, inspirational preservationist profiles, insightful case studies, and a variety of other resources, including a scholarly preservation-oriented bibliography of books and articles. It also provides access to a database of nearly 7,000 places significant to African American history and culture.
This "landing page" is a major step in our efforts to provide leadership, education, advocacy, and resources to help people save the places that matter to them. Its origins began about ten years ago when the Associate Sites Program was considering other thematic groups in addition to the successful one for Historic Artists Homes and Studios. With funding from the Ford Foundation, the National Trust created a "working inventory of African American Historic Places in the U.S." assembled from walking tours, landmark lists, museum directories, National Register nominations, newspaper articles, scholarly books, and suggestions from state preservation offices, statewide and local partners, and our regional offices. Armed with 7,000 entries, the National Trust convened a symposium of preservation leaders co-chaired by Dr. James O. Horton and Beverly Morgan-Welch to assess the current health and identify the particular needs of African American historic places, which resulted in the 2004 State of Affairs Paper. This report outlined the National Trust's efforts to preserve African American historic places, as well as identified many challenges, including that African American historic sites want to be recognized and that there is a great need for a network or association for preservation leaders working in this specialized field. With subsequent funding from the Ford Foundation, the National Trust was able to develop this "landing page" to create a place to share proven tools and ideas as well as allow users to explore a database of African American historic places.
Many people had a hand in making this "landing page" possible for the February 2010 launch, and I especially wish to thank Ariane Hofstedt and Jeffrey Harris for their initial efforts to advance the National Trust's efforts in this area; to Alison Hinchman and Sarah Heffern for their expertise and help with the technical elements to make this information available on PreservationNation.org; to Katherine Eyster, Trevor Johnson, Charisma Montfort, and Jesse Zanavich for their work on the database; to Erv James for researching, coordinating, and developing the landing page content; and to David Brown, Jim Vaughan, Tanya Bowers, Brent Leggs, David Field and Warren Shaver for their continued support and encouragement.
It is my hope that this landing page and the database will continue to grow and improve to give African American historic places the recognition they deserve as well a provide useful tools and information to the people who are working to save and share them with the public. I welcome your suggestions and ideas.
Max A. van Balgooy is the Director of the African American Historic Places Program and Director of Interpretation and Education at the National Trust for Historic Preservation and can be reached at Max_vanBalgooy@nthp.org.
