Preserving a culture
Dr. Bettye Collier-Thomas is fighting to preserve African American sites that are inscribed in America's history.
For nearly a century, American culture has been preserved with National Historic Sites, deeming them locations of great significance. But of the 90 sites, only 10 are grounded in African-American history, and they showcase just a small sliver of American history.
Bettye Collier-Thomas has spent decades working to correct that.
“I recall when I first started teaching, many people felt that African-American history was one thing, and American history was something else,” the professor from Temple University said. “African-American history is deeply rooted in the history of America, and we should never forget that.”
Collier-Thomas’ speech, “African-American Historical Sites: Identity, Memory, History and Preservation,”was the keynote presentation of the 12th annual African-American History Month Lecture at the Sonya Hones Stone Center for Black Culture and History.
Held Feb. 8, the event was hosted by the Center for the Study of the American South; the College of Arts and Sciences; the Department of African, African American, and Diaspora Studies; the Department of American Studies (and Folklore); the Department of History; the Department of Music; the Department of Religious Studies; Gillings School of Global Public Health; the Institute of African American Research; the Institute for the Arts and Humanities; the Office of the Chancellor and Associate Vice Chancellor of Diversity & Multicultural Affairs; the Office of the Provost; the School of Dentistry; the School of Information and Library Science; and the Stone Center.
The lecture was just one of the many Black History Month events at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Throughout February, University organizations plan to host discussions, panels and film screenings.
“This is critical for us, and we have many different venues to celebrate African-American History Month,” said Chancellor Carol L. Folt.
To honor this year’s national Black History Month theme of “Hallowed Grounds: Sites of African American Memory,” Collier-Thomas was invited to speak about her work in the study, institutionalization and preservation of African-American history.
Collier-Thomas is an award-winning author and researcher of African-American women’s history, religion studies, civil rights activism and electoral politics. She is also the founder and first executive of the Mary McLeod Bethune Museum — a federally recognized National Historic Site in Washington, D.C.
“She is a pioneer in virtually every field she’s studied,’’ Folt said, thanking Collier-Thomas for speaking at the University.
During her 90-minute lecture, Collier-Thomas discussed historical sites and the importance of preserving African-American history.
“While African-Americans recognize that their very identity is enshrined in their history, and while they struggle to keep alive the physical evidence of that history through museum, oral histories, historic societies, books and other publications, they recognize also the importance of identifying and preserving their buildings, cemeteries and other places they deem to be visual documentation of history that can be seen in times and cities through the United States,” she said.
But in the efforts to preserve the physical representations of culture, historians are faced with a multitude of problems starting with agreeing on what is historically significant.
“Who gets to decide what and who is important, and what is historical and what should be preserved?” Collier-Thomas asked. “There are many examples of African-American collective memory, which are deemed historic and important to African Americans that are considered too controversial and raise questions about American democracy.”
Once a location is declared a historical site, Collier-Thomas said, there is no guarantee that the money will actually be there to preserve buildings. Even after being recognized as locations of cultural significance, many of the sites fall into disarray.
While Collier-Thomas and her colleagues have spent years working to find ways to save the identity and find the funds to preserve sites of African-American history, she said there is still work to be done.
“My hope is that the Black millennials will embrace this history and recognize the importance of identifying and preserving these properties that are important to the collective memory of African-Americans, their identity and their communities,” she said.
