No. 1: What Is Preservation In Color?
Is Preserving African American landmarks Our Birthright or Responsibility? Plus, 5 Landmarks that became national treasures.
According to Webster's Dictionary, the definition of preservation is "the activity or process of keeping something valued alive, intact, or free from damage or decay".
When we think of the preservation industry, we tend to think of a building's repair or modernization. However, the practice of preservation applies to more than just vertical construction.
In historic preservation, preservationists focus on preserving the history of local, national, and international assets.
The intent is to protect its integrity and educate those who contact the subject's artifacts. Such assets could be the home of a great jazz musician or the letters from a civil rights leader.
The practice of historic preservation requires a holistic outlook. It's one thing to place a notable figures journal in a display case. It's another to share excerpts from the journal to spark open dialogue in a space that is accessible by the public. The methodology of preservation can shape the impact of the work. There is synergy in understanding all of the ways one can preserve their environment or surroundings. Preservation includes both tangible and intangible items. It really takes ingenuity to capture how history positively impacts the present and future.
It is our responsibility to maintain our culture, community and history. These factors are valuable in protecting our legacies while preparing to teach the future generations. Black Americans come from an ancestral lineage that was rich and royal but it was also stolen. Many tactics were put into place to diminish it. Erase it and prevent it from evolving. However through resiliency, Black Americans retained as much of our history prior to the Atlantic slave trade and recreated it utilizing our intuition and creativity.
For example, let's look at the Mary McLeod Bethune Council House in Washington, DC. Mary McLeod Bethune was a Black woman, activist, and educator. The Council House is the last home she was a resident of while living in Washington, DC.
A simple plaque could have been placed outside of her home to honor her, identifying it as her dwelling place. However, so much history occurred within the walls of that townhouse that a plaque would not have done her legacy justice.
The home has been preserved and maintained in a condition similar to the home's interior during her active years. One can tour the home to walk the space where she met with the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) in which she founded in 1935 and served as president. NCNW was and still is an organization that works for the advancement of African American women. The home served as the first headquarters for the organization for many years.
Imagine being a fly on those walls! Could you envision the discussions about the rubblings of hot topic news within the community and the strategizing for equality that occurred under that roof. Oh the echoes of power in the voices that bounced off of the painted walls and vibrated through the floorboards! Right in the heart of the Chocolate City! All behind the closed doors of a home occupied by a Black woman in the 1940s. This was a time when the US government intentionally prevented African Americans from being home owners and forced us to live in segregated housing in poor conditions. Yet Mary McLeod Bethune‘s home was a safe place. In addition to this, Mary was a preservationist herself. She kept a collection documenting the history of African American women. Imagine if there was never an initiative taken to capture this part of history. The home is listed as a National Historic Site so it is protected as well as an attraction for the city of Washington DC for history enthusiasts. Mary McLeod Bethune‘s work is just as important now as it was then. Black women continue to take the charge to organize, vocalize and fight for the equality of the Black community.
If you are interested, you can read more about the Mary McLeod Bethune Council House at the following link. https://www.nps.gov/mamc/index.htm
Mary McLeod Bethune Council House is a good place to start as we journey into this dialogue of using OUR creativity to preserve Black history, culture and community. Not only was she a notable figure in Black history but she was a preservationist. The act of preserving Black history, culture and community starts within ourselves. When we use our creativity and skills to provide informative information about who we are then we are conducting an act of preservation. In doing so, we change the narrative of what has been previously presented about who we are as Black Americans. We are more than the chains that they tried to use to keep our locked down and caged in. That is only part of our story. That is only part of what visually represents us. We are far more than what those chains represented.
Within this blog, we will discuss those other parts of the story. We will explore how Black Americans have instinctively preserved or recreated our history, culture and community through our creativity. Our creativity includes our knowledge, skills and activism.
I hope you enjoy this journey. I also hope that you find inspiration in using your own creativity to preserve aspects of us and you.
Want to explore more historically Black sites! Below are a few you can check out.
Frederick Douglas House in Washington D.C.
Harriet Tubman Home in Albany, New York
Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site in Topeka, Kansas
African Meeting House in Boston, Massachusetts
Hotel Theresa in Harlem, New York
