Shared by Reneé S. Anderson, Ph.D., National Museum of African American History and Culture
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This document is a work-in-progress to collectively compile resources to further anti-racism efforts in the field of historic preservation. This list is intended to support and engage the preservation field writ large, including policymakers, managers, practitioners, researchers, community organizers, advocates, and others. Educators and students, however, are envisioned as critical users and collaborators. Institutions of higher learning have an affirmative obligation to advance knowledge, challenge paradigms, and experiment with new approaches as they prepare the next generation of heritage professionals.
Table of Contents:
Maintaining Accountability as a Field and Form of Public Policy
- Analyzing race within preservation’s historical underpinnings
- Reforming preservation policy
- Examining diversity in preservation education & academic programs
- Incorporating anti-racist pedagogy and curricula
- Increasing diversity in preservation practice & employment
- Choosing what to document
- Documenting sites of injustices & inequities
- Co-creating data and community-engaged documentation & cultural mapping
- Recognizing & addressing exclusionary documentation standards
- Designating non-material or physically “compromised” heritage
- Finding representational justice in designation
Interpreting Historical Content & Narratives
- Involving stakeholders/publics in examining significance & appropriate representation
- Managing multiple or conflicting values and significance
- Considering additive interpretive approaches
Physically Intervening at Historic Places
- Involving stakeholders in conservation decisions
- Conserving sites that challenge the primacy of materiality
- Adding or reconstructing
- Subtracting or removing
Financing and Managing Historic Places and Projects
- Supporting BIPOC preservation and sites
- Incentivizing anti-racist projects and activities
Examining Preservation Intentions and Outcomes
- Understanding impacts of preservation on communities
- Instrumentalizing preservation for change
