HBCU Students Help Restore Historic Sites Tied to Black Activism

By N. Jamiyla Chisholm Aug 23, 2019

A new national preservation training program is teaching Black students how to preserve sites tied to Black achievement and activism.

Dubbed Touching History: Preservation in Practice, it’s a joint effort between the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP), the National Park Service (NPS) and the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s HOPE Crew. It aims to engage “a new generation of preservation professionals and complete urgent preservation work at America’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) campuses,” and to encourage Black students to pursue architecture degrees and work in historic preservation, per an August 22 statement from ACHP.

“Touching History gives students the opportunity to grow as a person, grow as a professional, and connect to their shared history and heritage,” Robert G. Stanton, ACHP expert member and former National Park Service director said in the statement. “This internship could lead them in a new direction for their careers and is giving them an understanding of the importance of telling the whole story of the American experience.”

Read more about the “Touching History” program here.