National Council on Public History

PROPOSAL TYPE

Roundtable

SEEKING

• Seeking General Feedback and Interest

RELATED TOPICS

• Memory
• Preservation
• Social Justice

ABSTRACT

We will present our American University Public History Masters Practicum project in which we created a digital space recognizing the grassroots efforts to preserve historically black cemeteries in the Washington, D.C., area. Our research is broken into four sections: historical background; twentieth-century resistance; current resistance; and notable activist and cemetery profiles. We consider resistance the individual and collective actions taken to preserve, protect, and publicize the physical spaces and ancestors buried there. Resistance is all of the hard work—sometimes unrecognized—that goes into saying the names of those within historically black cemeteries.

DESCRIPTION

Overall, this prospective roundtable is focused on sharing our research and benefiting from the experiences of other public historians navigating pressing challenges while authentically amplifying historically marginalized sites. Moreover, our goal is to facilitate a collaboration space for other cemetery sites around the country that would highlight the unique struggles these spaces face and their efforts to combat erasure by various forces. Though we are independent of the Mount Zion-Female Union Band Society Cemeteries, we have consulted with Executive Director Lisa Fager and additional stakeholders from historically Black cemeteries in D.C. who have encouraged our research. As public historians, we have worked to translate their history of resistance to the larger public.

From our research, our group has seen and understood how larger, louder organizations with more funding have disregarded inactive cemeteries composed of marginalized communities. Throughout the discussion portion, we would like to invite people to share their experiences and research from historic cemeteries and sites nationally who might be facing similar challenges. The recent passing of the African American Burial Ground Preservation Act has made strides to fund similar organizations through the federal government.  But what is the effect of this funding on pertinent organizations, and how does that advance the long-term goals of these sites to be preserved and restored? How can we use this legislation to involve prominent community members and encourage public interest? In this roundtable, we want to urge participants to consider how this Act can be expanded to other marginalized sites. Additionally, have we, as a group, left out any important facets with our research categories? Are there better ways to organize our efforts?

The goals of the project thus far urged existing community members to answer a call to action. We constantly strive to improve on the information we have already collected on our advisor and peer-reviewed website until the date of presentation at the National Council on Public History conference, dcblackcemeteries.humanitiestruck.com/blog.

If you have a direct offer of assistance, sensitive criticism, or wish to pass along someone’s contact information confidentially, please get in contact directly: Lillie Ortloff, American University, [email protected] 

ALL FEEDBACK AND OFFERS OF ASSISTANCE SHOULD BE SUBMITTED BY JULY 7, 2023. If you have general ideas or feedback to share, please feel free to use the comments feature below.

Discussion