Amber N. Wiley: “The Revolution Continues”: The Legacy of Black Heritage Movement
March 4, 2021 |
On March 4th join the Graduate Program in Historic Preservation and the Center for the Preservation of Civil Rights Sites for an evening talk by Amber N. Wiley, Ph.D. Her presentation re-examines the legacy and impact of the work of the Afro-American Bicentennial Corporation (ABC) in Washington, DC. It illustrates how the ABC set the precedent for a more nuanced understanding of the American past, expanding the National Park Service’s inclusion of Black historic landmarks twenty-fold. The ABC’s mission was to increase participation of African Americans in the 1976 Bicentennial, to direct projects that highlighted Black history, but most importantly, to be a “‘vehicle’ for improving the lives of Black Americans.”? The organization worked to “continue the revolution” through the “process of decolonization, a movement toward self-realization and self-government by people determined not to be kept in a subject status.” Preservation was a tactic of curating a cultural heritage that hitherto was rendered invisible, but the aims of ABC were also a part of the larger freedom struggle for Black Americans. In this way, ABC was an outgrowth of both the advent of Home Rule in Washington, as well as the Civil Rights and Black Power movements. Historians Charles H. Wesley and Mary F. Berry, Senator Edward Brooke and Representative Shirley Chisolm were a few of the power players on ABC’s advisory board. The talk will cover the long-time collaboration between the organization and the National Park Service (NPS), which continued when the ABC re-organized as the Afro-American Institute for Historic Preservation and Community Development.
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Website:
www.design.upenn.edu/historic-preservation/events/amber-n-wiley-revolution-continues-legacy-black-heritage-movement |
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| Location Information |
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Virtual Event |
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| Contact Information |
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Micah Leigh Dornfeld |
| Email:
pennhspv@design.upenn.edu |
| Phone:
215-898-3169 |
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