Historic preservation should include Black history, too
With one eye on the past and the other on “The Trail Ahead,” the upcoming 2021 Preserve Iowa Summit (June 3–5) will look two ways at once: back to Council Bluffs’ colorful history as a trailhead for explorers and settlers and, ideally, forward to a bright future where communities across Iowa use history to create a unique sense of place and shared identity.
But the way forward is dotted with reminders that historic preservation hasn’t always brought everyone along for the ride. The summit’s keynote speaker, Gretchen Sorin, plans to discuss “Driving While Black: African Americans, Space and Mobility” during the virtual conference’s opening session on June 3.
Sorin is the director and a distinguished professor of the Cooperstown Graduate Program at the State University of New York in Oneonta. Over the past 30 years, she also has curated exhibits for more than 250 museums, including the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service.
“African Americans have been left out of historic preservation in the same ways they lived in a separate society that white Americans didn’t even know existed,” says Sorin, who recently published a book and co-produced a documentary on the topic. “They had to stay in racially segregated spaces such as Black hotels, beaches and clubs. White Americans are largely unaware of it, so there’s this whole other side of preservation that’s been left out of history.”
The issue is further complicated because the vast majority of buildings and other historic sites associated with Black Americans’ history were wiped out by 20th century urban renewal projects.
“In a lot of places, those historical African American structures and neighborhoods are no longer standing,” Sorin says. “So how do we reclaim what was once there and has been destroyed? How do you address that in terms of historic preservation?”
For the past several years, the State Historic Preservation Office of Iowa has conducted a Civil Rights in Iowa survey to document some of the overlooked sites and stories of Black Iowans who struggled to achieve full civil rights.
Sorin points to several other examples as possible solutions, such as a city-wide exhibition in Vancouver, Canada, that integrates history into its Chinatown business section. She also notes a predominantly Black neighborhood in Albany, New York, that was displaced in the 1960s by the Empire State Plaza, where interpretive displays could tell the stories of the long-gone boarding houses where tourists used to stay.
She also encourages Black Americans to get involved in historic preservation.
“There are so few people of color working in preservation,” she says. “We don’t have people of color going into these communities and asking ‘What’s important?’”
In Iowa, Paula Mohr of the State Historic Preservation Office hopes Sorin’s presentation will foster greater awareness about the history of Black Americans and other people of color.
“Everybody knows the stories about Buxton, Fort Des Moines and Edna Griffin,” Mohr says. “If we’re committed to being more inclusive, there are other interesting stories out there, and we need to be digging deeper into the history of all of our communities to find them.”
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The 2021 Preserve Iowa Summit is presented by the State Historic Preservation Office and co-hosted by the city of Council Bluffs. It will take place online June 3–5. General registration is $25.
— Jeff Morgan, Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs
