University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses

Being a part of the narrative: how can we preserve Black heritage in the U.S. South while mitigating violence and facilitating change?

(USC Thesis Other)

Being a part of the narrative: how can we preserve Black heritage in the U.S. South while mitigating violence and facilitating change?

PDF

Download a page range

Download transcript

Copy asset link

Request this asset

Transcript (if available)

Content BEING A PART OF THE NARRATIVE:
HOW TO PRESERVE BLACK HERITAGE IN THE U.S. SOUTH WHILE MITIGATING
VIOLENCE AND FACILITATING CHANGE?
by
Kira Lavonne Williams
A Thesis Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
(MASTER OF HERITAGE CONSERVATION/
URBAN PLANNING)
May 2024
Copyright 2024 Kira Lavonne Williams

ii
DEDICATION:
This work is dedicated to my ancestors, elders, and all those who have come before me and made
sacrifices that have paved my way. Without you, I am nothing.

iii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thank you to my various little communities that have surrounded me with love and
support during this process. To my friends and family, thank you for the emotional and financial
support that I needed to get through this.
Thank you to my wonderful thesis committee members being patient with me and
guiding me through this process. To Dr. Andrea Roberts, thank you for making the time out of
your incredibly busy schedule to be on my committee. You are an immensely accomplished
woman and I hope to accomplish a fraction of what you have in my career. To Cindy Olnick,
thank you for your fine tuning and editing abilities that really pulled this work together. To Trudi
Sandmeier, the force that kept this whole process moving, thank you for your continued
encouragement and for pushing me when I felt like giving up.
I also want to thank my classmates and professors who have guided my research, acted as
safe spaces to brainstorm ideas and content, and just been there for general support during this
process. Thank you to Phillip Howard, Endia Harris, and Catherine Fleming Bruce for speaking
with me and sharing your resources. No one’s kindness has gone unnoticed.
An overwhelmingly large thank you is owed to the Gardner, Steele, Hall, and Till
families for allowing me to reshare your families stories. It means the world to me that I was able
to speak with Dr. Cheryl Gardner Davis and Davine Hall, truly bringing this work full circle. I
hope I made you all proud.

iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS
DEDICATION: ............................................................................................................................. ii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS...........................................................................................................iii
LIST OF FIGURES ..................................................................................................................... vi
ABSTRACT:................................................................................................................................ vii
INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................ 1
Terminology + Identity................................................................................................................ 1
Land Acknowledgment................................................................................................................ 3
CHAPTER 1: PRESERVATION POLICY FOR VULNERABLE SITES.............................. 5
Part One: Brief Review of Current Preservation Policy in the U.S............................................ 5
Part Two: Recording Vulnerable Histories................................................................................. 8
CHAPTER 2: CASE STUDY - SELMA TO MONTGOMERY NATIONAL HISTORIC
TRAIL CAMPSITES.................................................................................................................. 13
Introduction............................................................................................................................... 13
Part One: Historical Background............................................................................................. 13
Part Two: Preservation Policy in Alabama .............................................................................. 20
Part Three: The Voting Rights March of 1965.......................................................................... 22
Part Four: The Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail + Campsites .......................... 33
CHAPTER 3: CASE STUDY - THE EMMETT TILL MEMORIAL SIGNS ...................... 37
Introduction............................................................................................................................... 37
Part One: Historical Background............................................................................................. 37
Part Two: Preservation Policy in Mississippi........................................................................... 43
Part Three: Memorial Signs + Review of Previous Efforts...................................................... 46
Part Four: Teaching Preservation Through Till’s Legacy ........................................................ 54
CHAPTER 4: ANALYSIS AND RECOMMENDATIONS..................................................... 58
Introduction............................................................................................................................... 58
Part One: Current Sociopolitical Climate ................................................................................ 58
Part Two: An Awakening in Preservation................................................................................. 63
Part Three: Recommendations.................................................................................................. 71
Analysis of efforts related to the Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail..................74
Analysis of efforts related to the Emmett Till Memorial Signs..............................................75
CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................................... 78
BIBLIOGRAPHY....................................................................................................................... 83
APPENDIX A: Preservation tools and terms list..................................................................... 95

v
APPENDIX B: White House telegram from President Lyndon B. Johnson......................... 98
APPENDIX C: Clipping from the Chicago Times................................................................... 99

vi
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1.1: Lutselk’e, Northwest Terrritories. Photographer: Pat Kane. Source: "We Rise
Together", March 2018. ................................................................................................................ 10
Figure 2.1: Infographic containing events leading up, and following, to the Voting Rights March
....................................................................................................................................................... 17
Figure 2.2: Newspaper or magazine clipping of a headline announcing Jimmie Lee Jackson's
murder, Feb. 18, 1695 ................................................................................................................... 24
Figure 2.3: Bearing of Jimmie Lee Jackson's casket at Brown Chapel AME Baptist Church,
March 3, 1965 ............................................................................................................................... 25
Figure 2.4: Selma marchers being tear gassed by law enforcement, March 7, 1965.................... 26
Figure 2.5: David Hall farm, undated. Source: Endia Harris........................................................ 28
Figure 2.6: Marchers staying warm by a fire inside of a metal drum. March 21st, 1965............. 28
Figure 2.7: Steele Farmland, date unknown. Source: Endia Harris............................................. 29
Figure 2.8: Gardner Farmland, undated. Source: Endia Harris. ................................................... 30
Figure 2.9: Marchers blow up makeshift air mattresses, March 23, 1965.................................... 31
Figure 2.10: Nina Simone performing at the "Stars for Freedom Rally”, 1965 ........................... 32
Figure 2.11: Marchers leaving the City of St. Jude, 1965 ............................................................ 32
Figure 3.1: Photograph of Bryant Grocery and Meat Market in 1955.......................................... 38
Figure 3.2: Mamie Till next to her son's casket at his funeral, on Sept. 6th, 1955 in Chicago..... 39
Figure 3.3: Scan of Jet Magazine from Sept. 15th, 1955.............................................................. 40
Figure 3.4: Till's uncle, Moses Wright, identifying J. W. Milam during the murder trial ............ 41
Figure 3.5: Marker at M.B. Lowe's Glendora Gin........................................................................ 46
Figure 3.6: Marker at Tutwiler Funeral Home.............................................................................. 47
Figure 3.7: Marker at King's Place ............................................................................................... 48
Figure 3.8: Marker at Graball Landing. This is the fourth sign erected on the site……………...51
Figure 3.9: Photo of members of "League of the South", a white supremacist hate group,
standing at the Graball Landing sign…………………………………………………………….52
Figure 3.10: Front of sign in front of Bryant's Grocery site ......................................................... 52
Figure 3.11: Back of sign in front of Bryant's Grocery site.......................................................... 52
Figure 4.1: George Floyd mural in Minneapolis, Minnesota, 2020.............................................. 63
Figure 4.2: George Floyd mural in Idlib, Syria ............................................................................ 64
Figure 4.3: “Greg Bajema views the memorial of stuffed animals, flowers, tee-shirts and ball
caps that remains on Nov. 5th, 2014 in Ferguson, Mo”................................................................ 65
Figure 4.4: Slide of questions from presentation by Dr. Andrea Roberts, 2019........................... 72
Figure 5.1: Photograph of Bryant Grocery and Meat Market site in 2015................................... 80

vii
ABSTRACT:
It seems as if every day I am learning of new elements of Black history that have either
not been taught in schools or have almost been lost due to dying ancestry and resources. The
campsites along the Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail are slowly slipping into nonexistence and are well on their way to becoming yet another of these places that the next
generation will not know about. On the other hand, the Emmett Till Memorial Sign is constantly
being vandalized and attacked, requiring continual replacement and supervision. The practice of
heritage conservation in the United States is not doing all it can to properly address the issues of
conserving vulnerable heritage sites that are related to Black American or African American
heritage. Bringing awareness, but also protection, to sites and resources of such rich cultural
history is now more necessary than ever. As the world becomes increasingly politically recessive
and conservative, the threat of losing underrepresented heritage is at a high. The field of heritage
conservation needs to find impartial methods of preserving heritage so that underrepresented and
vulnerable heritage sites are not being forgotten or further endangered.

1
INTRODUCTION:
There is not a single place on the North American continent, maybe even the entire
world, which has not been touched by violence of some kind. Every place has its own stories of
struggle and pain, and each of these places has its own way of navigating and remembering
them. Hidden in the most unsuspected places are bits of history that are patiently waiting for us
to rediscover. This thesis highlights some of these forgotten pieces of the past in Alabama and
Mississippi, and their ties to legislation that helped change civil rights in the United States.
Recollecting these sites associated with the Civil Rights Movement, particularly the Voting
Rights March of 1965 and the murder of Emmett Till in 1955, and analyzing the proper methods
for their memorialization, will bring us one step closer to honoring these tense, yet sacred pieces
of Black American History.
This thesis will document how the practice of Heritage Conservation/Historic
Preservation policy has done a lackluster job of protecting sites that are not either purely based
on architecture, or that are outside the realm of European/white history. Many preservation
policies and tools are outdated, poorly implemented, or completely avoidant and reductive of
certain aspects of the past. While the field is slowly trying to rectify its problematic ways,
important resources are rapidly disappearing, and for this, there is no rectification. It is important
that preservation policies are being used equitably to do everything possible to ensure the
longevity and security of such valuable heritage, both tangible and intangible.
Terminology + Identity
As I discuss being equitable and complete within the retelling of histories, it is important
to include some clarification on the language that will be used in this thesis. The language that
we use to describe one another is immensely powerful and influential. It is worth noting that

2
linguistics and characterization of individuals and groups can be dependent on human geography
and personal preference, but overall, in the United States, and among individual communities,
there are some terms that are deemed culturally acceptable, and some that are not.
Regarding race and ethnicity, ‘Black’ and ‘African American’ are both acceptable terms
to use when referring to peoples of the African Diaspora, meaning those of African descent who
live outside of the African continent, particularly referring to those who live in the United States
in this context. The terms Black Americans or people/individuals, and African Americans are
used interchangeably in this thesis, but I want to highlight that they do have slightly different
meanings and uses. Black refers people of the African Diaspora that both live in the United
States, African continent, and anywhere else, while African American refers specifically to
Black people who are born and raised in the United States. The term ‘Blacks’ will not be used in
this thesis, as I view it as a bit dehumanizing. The conscious removal of the word ‘people’ and
shortening to just ‘Blacks’ gives the term a sense of otherness and bastardizes the Black identity.
The terms ‘Negro’ and ‘colored’ will also not be used here, as they are outdated terms that have
been previously used to identify Black Americans and African Americans. ‘People of color’ and
‘BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, people of color)’ are more terms that are used to refer to Black
individuals, but these terms just lump all non-white people into a singular category, when each
non-white culture has its own identity and struggles that fail to get recognized with these terms.
The lack of capitalization of ‘Black,’ similar to the use of ‘Blacks,’ has been used to strip power
and autonomy from those of a Black experience, and that is why ‘Black’ will always be
capitalized in this thesis. Whiteness, or one’s proximity to it, have been historically and
contemporarily weaponized heavily, especially within the United States. The capitalization of the
term ‘white’ is not incorrect or negative, but it has been conflated with harmful ideologies and

3
used to provoke violence. For this reason, the term ‘white’ is not capitalized in this thesis. Any
term other than Black, African, or African American that is used in this thesis to describe Black
individuals and groups will be part of a quote or reference; the lack of capitalization of ‘Black’
will also only be seen in quotes or references.1
When referring to slavery in the Americans, the term ‘enslaved’ is used to refer to
individuals rather than referring to them as a ‘slave,’ as the term ‘slave’ implies that being a
slave is an attribute of the person, instead of it being something that was forced upon them by
those who enslaved them by using systemic and structural power/violence.
The term ‘Indigenous’ referred to the first people and nations who resided in a particular
place; in the context of this thesis, the places include the Americans and Australia. I am reluctant
to use terms like ‘Native American,’ ‘American Indian,’ or ‘Indigenous American’ when
referring to those indigenous to the Americans, as the land was only known as America after the
brutal colonization of Indigenous people and their territories. I strictly use the term ‘Indigenous,’
though each nation, tribe, and culture have their preference of how to be addressed and referred
to.2 The same goes for Australia; those indigenous to the land should be referred to as either First
Nations People or Indigenous people.3
Land Acknowledgment
I would also like to take time to acknowledge the Indigenous and First People of the
territories and lands that are discussed in this thesis. In Perry County, Alabama (location of the
city of Marion), Dallas County (the location of Campsite One in Selma), and in Lowndes County
1 For more information of capitalizations of race, see https://cssp.org/2020/03/recognizing-race-in-language-whywe-capitalize-black-and-white/. 2 For best practices on referring to Indigenous people in the Americas, see
https://americanindian.si.edu/nk360/informational/impact-words-tips. 3 For best practices on referring to First Nations People in Australia, see
http://www.workingwithindigenousaustralians.info/content/Indigenous_Australians_3_Approrpiate_Terms.html.

4
(the location of Campsites Two and Three in White Hall), are all located on the land of the
Muscogee, or Creek people until colonization of their lands by European settlers in the sixteenth
century. In Montgomery County, Alabama, the land where Campsite Four and the Alabama State
Capitol are located (in the city of Montgomery) sits on portions of what was Creek, Choctaw,
Cherokee, and/or Chickasaw land prior to the Indian Removal Act of 1830. For Le Flore County
and Bolivar County in Mississippi, the locations where the events of Emmett Till’s murder and
murder trial took place are located on what was Choctaw land until 1830 with the passage of the
Indian Removal Act and the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek. Till’s family home in Chicago is in
Cook County, Illinois, which sits on what was considered the land of the Council of Three Fires-
-the Ojibwa, Ottawa, and Potawatomi--as well as the Miami, Ho-Chunk, Menominee, Sauk, and
Meskwaki people.

5
CHAPTER 1: PRESERVATION POLICY FOR VULNERABLE SITES
Part One: Brief Review of Current Preservation Policy in the U.S.
It is important to first lay the foundation of some of the historic preservation policies in
the United States and how they have historically been used, to make it clear as to why they are
no longer (or never were) relevant to preserving Black cultural heritage. The first truly influential
piece of federal preservation legislation was the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 that
was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson. This Act was an amalgamation of past
preservation efforts, such as the Antiquities Act of 1906 and the Historic Sites Act of 1935, that
was intended to acknowledge the importance of protecting the nation’s heritage from urban
renewal and federal development.4 Section 106 of the Preservation Act of 1966 details the
importance of taking into consideration the potential effects that projects could have on historic
properties. The next piece of preservation legislation that had widespread influence was the
National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which was enacted in 1970 to ensure that federal
agencies evaluate potential environmental effects that could be caused by their actions.5 Some
other relevant information regarding preservation tools and terms can be seen below.
List of Terms (broader list can be seen in Appendix A):
• Federal Designations - Include National Historic Landmarks and the National
Register of Historic Places, which is the nation’s official list of historic structures,
landscapes, etc.
• State Designations - Can trigger regulatory protection from state government
actions or governs whether a property owner is eligible for state funding, tax
benefits, or other incentives.
• Local Designations - Local communities may choose to put greater protections in
place for their historic resources by enacting a preservation ordinance, which
creates a process by which properties may be designated as individual landmarks
or as contributing structures within a historic district.
• Historic Significance - The importance of a property to the history, architecture,
archaeology, and/or culture of a community, a state, or the nation.
4 See https://ncshpo.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/nhpaTitle54Dec2016.pdf. 5 For more information on NEPA, see https://www.epa.gov/nepa/what-national-environmental-policy-act.

6
• Historic Resource - A building, structure, object, site, landscape, or district that is
significant in American history, architecture, archeology, and/or culture.
• Section 106 - Requires that federal agencies consider the impact on historic places
that their projects may have.
• Secretary of the Interior’s Standards - Details the four types of treatment:
preservation, rehabilitation, restoration, and reconstruction.
• Integrity - The authenticity and significance of a property’s historic identity,
evidenced by the survival of physical characteristics that existed during the
property’s historic period.
• Federal Rehabilitation Tax Credit - Provides a 20% income tax credit to
developers of income-producing properties such as office buildings, retail
establishments, rental apartments, and others.
These listed tools and legislative measures have been assessed and analyzed by several
conservation scholars including Erica Avrami, Thomas King, Andrea Roberts, and so many
others, and they have documented the inequalities that are present in the field of historic
preservation. A general consensus in these findings would be that the field is incredibly biased
and caters towards those who identify as white, male, and non-Latino, and who are wealthy.6
Heritage conservation is also lacking in racial diversity, more so than any other profession that
handles the built environment, with roughly 99% of scholars/practitioners being white.7 The
diversity deficiency in the field results in a deficiency in the sites and histories that get protected.
Jeremy Wells writes that “White supremacy manifests in a field, such as historic preservation, in
two important ways: 1) a field’s theory and philosophy is predominantly or entirely defined by
White authors/intellectual leaders; and 2) the authors, practitioners, and teachers in a field are
predominantly White, and thus fail to reflect the general population. The supremacy of this
theory/philosophy and the authoritative power of its White practitioners and scholars is sustained
through normative cultural practices and reproduced by institutions”; this is not to say that all
6 Texts citing these claims would include: Jeremy Wells, “10 Ways Historic Preservation Policy Supports White
Supremacy and 10 Ideas to End It,” (June 2020); Ned Kaufman, “Place, Race, and Story: Essays on the Past and
Future of Historic Preservation,” (Sept. 2009); Kenyatta McLean, “Reclaiming time and space: bringing historical
preservation into the future,” (May 2020); etc. 7 Casey Cep, “The Fight to Preserve African American History,” (Jan. 2020). Cited in Wells, “10 Ways”.

7
white preservationists or white individuals working in this field are white supremacists, but they
could be perpetuating white supremacy by concentrating their attention and efforts on preserving
histories that do not represent ethic cultures or histories of minority groups.8 As the common
phrase when discussing diversity in media goes: Representation Matters. Individuals who are
interested in historic preservation, but don’t fit into the demographics of those who thrive in the
field, might not believe that it is possible for them to be successful in the field, and/or might not
think that this field is suitable for protecting their heritage.
As far as Black/African American heritage specifically in the United States, there is an
infinitely long history that can be researched and studied regarding our contributions (willing or
not) to the advancement and prosperity of this country. That being said, “of the more than ninetyfive thousand entries on the National Register of Historic Places—the list of sites deemed worthy
of conservation by the federal government—only two percent focus on the experiences of black
Americans”.
9 Black history in the United States is often not substantially included in the broader
discussion of American history, and likewise, conservation of Black cultural and historic sites is
often thought of separately from the rest of conservation.
10 Blackness is also politicized heavily
in the United States, so engaging with and preserving Black history is often seen as too
politically conscious, or even threatening. Scholar George J. Sefa Dei states, “The mantra is that
Blackness and Black identities are complex, fluid, contested, and negotiated. This is an
intellectual stance professed within rigid orthodoxies, tyrannical hegemonies such that one not
dare to espouse counter stances such as ‘strategic essentialism’ without cost, discipline, and
8 Jeremy C. Wells, “10 Ways Historic Preservation Policy Supports White Supremacy and 10 Ideas to End It,” (June
2020). https://api.drum.lib.umd.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/45f993bb-82b1-4346-aa08-d1a103978684/content. 9 Casey Cep, “The Fight to Preserve African American History,” (Jan. 2020). Cited in Wells, “10 Ways”. 10 The detachment mentioned can be seen in the instances like the teaching of history in public schools, from the
amount of Black historical events included compared to histories of white Americans, and in the type of material
that is included, versus what gets left out.

8
punishment in return”. 11 Trying to learn and work in a field that has historically ignored
marginalized histories of any kind is incredibly frustrating and condescending, especially as a
Black woman. Though it can be exhausting at times, I know that preserving Black history and
culture is essential to Black futures and the inheritance of our people.
Part Two: Recording Vulnerable Histories
The Antiquities Act of 1906 is the oldest piece of legislation in the United States set to
protect prehistoric, historic, and scientific features that are located on public land; the Act
authorized the President to declare, regulate, and/or diminish national monuments on federal
lands.12 The Antiquities Act was created as a direct response to the concerns of destruction of
and theft from archaeological sites containing artifacts and sacred objects belonging to various
Indigenous groups and Tribes, and to establish a prompt means of protecting federal lands and
resources. The first national monument, Devil’s Tower located in Wyoming, was established in
1906 by President Theodore Roosevelt.
13 President Franklin D. Roosevelt was the president to
most often use this authority, overseeing the establishment, enlarging, and/or diminishing of
thirty-six monuments between 1934 and 1941.14 As stated in the Cultural Resources Report on
vandalism in the Rocky Mountain West from 1978, “The federal Antiquities Act of 1906 was
judged not effective as a vandalism deterrent by a large majority of respondents. They pointed to
insufficient public awareness of the Act and law enforcement difficulties as the major reasons for
its lack of power” (Williams 1978, 127). The Antiquities Act was later supplemented by the
11 George J. Sefa Dei, “Reframing Blackness and Black Solidarities Through Anti-Colonial and Decolonial
Prisms,” (May 2017).
12 “Antiquities Act of 1906.” National Park Service, March 2023,
https://www.nps.gov/subjects/archeology/antiquities-act.htm.
13 Devil’s Tower is home to many Indigenous tribes, including the Arapaho, the Crow, the Cheyenne, Shoshone,
and the Lakota. Legends of the name ‘Devil’s Tower”, the structure of the rock, the details in the rock, etc. vary
among tribes. See https://www.nps.gov/deto/learn/historyculture/first-stories.htm.
14 For more information on how all U.S. presidents have used their authority in this capacity, see
https://sgp.fas.org/crs/misc/R41330.pdf.

9
Archaeological Resources and Protection Act of 1979, to specify the protection of archaeological
resources both on public land, and on what was considered “Indigenous land,” from the sale,
exchange, and/or transport if proper permission and documentation was not received.15
Despite the existence of the Antiquities Act and its supplementation, property and
markings of Indigenous groups were still being tampered with and/or destroyed due to their lack
of protections. According to SAFE (Saving Antiquities for Everyone), around ninety percent of
known sites located within the Four Corners (those being in Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and
Arizona) had been looted or vandalized by 1988.16 When these archaeological sites are being
looted and destroyed, the stolen items are often sold on illegal international trading markets, and
sometimes even end up in museum collections.17 In 1990, the U.S. Congress enacted the Native
American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) to address the ancestral rights of
descendants from Indian Tribes and Native Hawaiians to items related to Native American
culture, such as objects of cultural patrimony, funerary objects and human remains, and any
other sacred object.18 The National NAGPRA Program is administered by the National Park
Service, which is a bureau of the U.S. Department of the Interior.19
15 For the Archaeological Resources and Protection Act, see
https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?path=/prelim@title16/chapter1B&edition=prelim. 16 Saving Antiquities for Everyone (SAFE), “Cultural Heritage at Risk: United States,” Khan Academy, Accessed
January 11, 2024.
17 An example of this can be seen in the British Museum located in London, England. Many of their pieces and
collections were obtained through colonization and theft; see https://www.britishmuseum.org/about-us/britishmuseum-story/collecting-histories. There is also a section on their website named “Contested objects from the
Collection” detailing why items in their collection are controversial; see https://www.britishmuseum.org/aboutus/british-museum-story/contested-objects-collection. 18 For the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, see
https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?path=/prelim@title25/chapter32&edition=prelim. 19 The role of the U.S. Department of the Interior is to protect and manage the Nation’s natural resources and cultural
heritage and provide scientific/other information about those resources and honors its trust responsibilities or special
commitments to American Indians, Alaska Natives, and affiliated Island Communities. The Secretary of the Interior
has administrative responsibility for coordinating federal policy in territories of American Samoa, Guam, the U.S.
Virgin Islands, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and the responsibility to administer and
oversee U.S. federal assistance provided to the Freely Associated States of the Federated States of Micronesia, the
Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau under the Compacts of Free Association. The Office of
Insular Affairs executes these responsibilities on behalf of the Secretary.

10
In 2003 at the “Vth World Parks Congress in Durban, South Africa,” the International
Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) called recognition to Community Conserved Areas,
Indigenous and Community Conserved Areas, and Indigenous and Indigenous owned/managed
protected areas.20 This then led to the creation of the Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas
(IPCAs) in Canada in 2004. IPCAs were created to ensure that Indigenous groups are the
primary protectors of land and sea areas through Indigenous knowledge systems, laws, and
governance. While there are many different structures and arrangements that IPCAs can take on,
according to the Indigenous Circle of Experts, all IPCAs should contain a few essential elements,
including: being Indigenous led, representing a long-term commitment to conservation, and
elevating Indigenous rights and responsibilities.21
Figure 1.1: Lutselk’e, Northwest Territories. Photographer: Pat Kane. Source: "We Rise Together", March 2018.
20 Paul Goriup, “The International Journal for Protected Area Managers.” Newbury, UK: World Commission on
Protected Areas (WCPA) of IUCN - The World Conservation Union, 2004.
https://www.iucn.org/sites/default/files/import/downloads/14_2lowres.pdf
21 The Indigenous Circle of Experts. “The Indigenous Circle of Experts’ Report and Recommendations, March
2018.” The Indigenous Circle of Experts, 2018.
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/57e007452e69cf9a7af0a033/t/5ab94aca6d2a7338ecb1d05e/1522092766605/P
A234-ICE_Report_2018_Mar_22_web.pdf.

11
In Australia, a similar action has been taken with the Indigenous Protected Area (IPAs). IPAs
were created in 1997 by the Australian Government and are the dedicated protection of land and
sea by First Nations groups, who take in considerations from the Australian Government. More
than fifty percent of the eighty-two dedicated IPAs are on Australia's National Reserve System,
which is a network of protected areas representing cultural heritage and biodiversity across the
Nation.22 Both IPCAs and IPAs ,being Indigenous-operated and managed, allow for the
remembrance and conservation of culture to be facilitated by members of said cultures, which I
believe to be invaluable. Having stories, memories, and other aspects of culture being passed
directly from the source to future generations is something that we often take for granted, as
many groups and cultures do not have this luxury (i.e. Indigenous/Native Americans being
stripped of their languages and cultures by European settler colonialists, enslaved Africans in the
Americas being deprived of having their original names and given European “slave names”,
etc.). Often when these stories are not shared by those who lived them, or were affected by them,
some aspects get lost in translation, and ultimately get forgotten. As the phenomenal author and
poet Maya Angelou stated, “You can’t really know where you are going until you know where
you have been.”23
Forgetting our pasts in efforts to create our futures is one of the main premises that the
field of historic preservation aims to combat; though, as previously mentioned, it has not always
been done equitably. Sites with traumatic stories or memories are often forgotten as we try to
22 National Indigenous Australians Agency; Department of Climate Change, “Australia’s Indigenous Protected Areas
Program - Fact Sheet,” Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, January 1, 1970,
https://www.dcceew.gov.au/environment/land/publications/australia-indigenous-protected-area-program. 23 Joanne Braxton, “Maya Angelou: 1619 and the Making of America,” William & Mary, Accessed January 11, 2024
https://www.wm.edu/as/africanastudies/middlepassage/1619initiative/angelou/.

12
“move on” or “turn the page” onto the next chapter of our lives.24 Doing this leaves us with gaps
in our stories and whole instances from our pasts that do not make it to the present. The
International Coalition of Sites of Conscience (ICSC or “The Coalition”) is an organization that
specializes in the act of remembering. The coalition defines a Site of Conscience as “a place of
memory – such as a historic site, place-based museum or memorial – that prevents this erasure
from happening in order to foster more just and humane societies today”; these sites not only
help us to reconcile with the traumatic parts of history, but they also allow their visitors to make
the connections between these historic occurrences and present-day human rights issues that may
be happening.25 Calling attention to the connections between historic and contemporary struggles
allows for the merging of narratives, and for a throughline to be created within storytelling.
Organizations like The Coalition are imperative in reminding us that all history is not painless to
discuss or relive, but it is essential that we still do it to fully reckon with our pasts to build a more
comprehensive future.
24 Instance of this erasure can be seen in places like Seneca Village, a community with a primarily Black American
and Irish Immigrant population, that was seized and destroyed under eminent domain in 1857, in order to create
what is now known as Central Park in Manhattan, New York. Widespread knowledge of Seneca Village did not
come about until 2011, when an archaeological excavation took place, uncovering significant remains of the
community that was there. For more information on Seneca Village, see
https://www.centralparknyc.org/articles/seneca-village. 25 Sites of Conscience, “Home,” Accessed on November 12, 2022, https://www.sitesofconscience.org/.

13
CHAPTER 2: CASE STUDY - SELMA TO MONTGOMERY NATIONAL
HISTORIC TRAIL CAMPSITES
Introduction
After coming across these campsites via the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s
“11 Most Endangered Historic Places for 2021” list, I was fascinated with them almost instantly.
I was completely unaware that these sites existed and wanted to know more about their
importance during the Voting Rights March. It was also a bit shocking to discover that there has
been little to no effort in the physical preservation of the campsites, but this country does have a
reputation of altering Black history, so seeing only limited local conservation efforts being made
really came as no surprise.26 That being said, I wanted to know more about what needed to be
done to get larger-scale preservation efforts started; in order to do that, I first needed to explore
the broader context of their place in history and gain an understanding of how preservation is
used within the state of Alabama.
Part One: Historical Background
The state of Alabama, like other places in the United States, has an extensive history of
state-sanctioned and supported violence against Black Americans (specifically African
Americans); examples of this violence would include chattel slavery, Jim Crow laws and Black
Codes, over policing of Black individuals and spaces, and a myriad of unjustified hate crimes
that went unpunished.27 Early versions of Jim Crow laws and Black Codes prohibited Black
26 Examples of the mentioned history altering would include curriculum restrictions, book bans, limited discussion
or education on Black history, etc.
27 Black Codes were a series of laws put in place in 1865-1866 after the American Civil War in order to maintain the
white supremacy that was enforced under the Confederacy. Black code subsided after the Reconstruction Era but
had already laid the foundation for the Jim Crow laws that would soon follow. Jim Crow laws were the collection of
state and local laws that legalized racial segregation from 1877, until after the passing of the Civil Rights Act of
1964 and the Fair Housing Act in 1968. Though segregation was outlawed, full integration was not necessarily
endorsed nation-wide. For more information regarding Black Codes and Jim Crow laws, see
https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/black-codes-and-jim-crow-laws/.

14
people from owning land, voting, or holding jobs outside of farming and indentured servitude.
After the 15th Amendment, these laws shifted to require the segregation of public spaces,
residential neighborhoods—even some towns and cities were off limits for Black people. Under
Jim Crow, Black men had the legal right to vote, but poll taxes, literacy tests, and grandfather
clauses were implemented to suppress Black votes. This discriminatory behavior continued until
the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which banned degradation tactics and enforced the 15th
Amendment on a federal level.28
During the Civil Rights Movement in 1965, Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. led the
march in Alabama, from the city of Selma to the State Capitol in Montgomery. The fifty-fourmile trek to the Capitol building took approximately five days to complete, meaning that Dr.
King and fellow volunteer marchers needed safe places to stop and rest along the way. The
marchers stationed at a series of four campsites located between Selma and Montgomery; these
campsites are a part of what is now known as the Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail
(SEMO).29
The Civil Rights Movement is an incredibly defining moment in United States history
due to the Movement’s role in disrupting the South’s legal policy of race-based segregation, and
it helped advance African Americans' equal rights legislation at the time to the greatest extent
since the Reconstruction era (1865–77).30 The Civil Rights Movement has inspired many other
groups that have suffered injustices, including the Immigrant Rights Movement and the
28 The 15th Amendment granted African American men the right to vote. See https://www.archives.gov/milestonedocuments/15th-amendment. 29 See https://www.nps.gov/places/selma-to-montgomery-national-historic-trail.htm. 30 See https://www.britannica.com/event/American-civil-rights-movement.

15
LGBTQ+ Rights Movement, to name a few.31 Though powerful people in those communities
have led their respective movements, the Civil Rights Movement and its leaders provide an
influential template for activism. To commemorate these honorable movements, monuments or
art pieces have been created to continue spreading their message. The Civil Rights Movement is
memorialized in places such as the Freedom Riders National Monument and the Civil Rights
Memorial in Alabama, and with the ‘Martin Luther King, Jr. Day’ holiday in the United States, to
name a few. In the National Register of Historic Places, the Movement is represented in heritage
sites such as the Lincolnville Historic District in Florida, the Martin Luther King Jr. National
Historical Park in Georgia, the Birmingham Civil Rights District, and the Dexter Avenue King
Memorial Baptist Church, both located in Alabama. Many of these monuments that are currently
in place are either fabrications created by those who are not on the receiving end of the hate and
violence of the Civil Rights Movement, and/or are depicting crass and painful moments in
history such as ‘That Which Might Have Been, Birmingham, 1963’ in Phoenix, Arizona and the
Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument in Birmingham, Alabama.32
The Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail was placed on the National Trust for
Historic Preservation’s “11 Most Endangered Historic Places” list in 2021, as “many of the farm
properties now need stabilization, repair, and interpretation to expand the narrative of this
31 The Civil Rights Movement in this context refers to the nation-wide movement for equal rights for African
Americans, and for the end of racial segregation in the United States that took place from 1954 to 1968. See
https://www.loc.gov/classroom-materials/united-states-history-primary-source-timeline/post-war-united-states-1945-
1968/civilrightsmovement/#:~:text=Civil%20Rights%20March%20from%20Selma,arose%20across%20the%20United%20St
ates. 32 “That Which Might Have Been, Birmingham, 1963” is a sculpture by white artist John Henry Waddell that is said
to be a memorial of the four Black girls who were killed in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in 1963. The
sculpture depicts nude, adult women, but is intended to remind onlookers of the innocence of children, and how the
four girls who were killed at 16th Street Baptist Church did not get to grow into adulthood. The Birmingham Civil
Rights National Monument is a culmination of sites, buildings, and art pieces that were a p art of, or represent events
during the Civil Rights Movement. Several art installations or sculptures at the Birmingham Civil Rights National
Monument depict graphic police violence that is not necessary to have visualized to know and understand the
history.

16
significant landscape in Civil Rights history and share the stories of these families, whose
tremendous bravery helped to change American history”.33 According to the National Park
Service (NPS), National Historic Trails provide access to historical monuments, areas of interest,
route stretches, and waterways that allow for the retracing of these historical events such as
migration, exploration, trade, and military action.34 National Historic Trails are a part of the
National Trails System created in 1968 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National
Trails System Act; the system consists of twenty-one National Historic Trails, eleven national
scenic trails, more than 1,300 national recreational trails, a few connecting and side trails, and
one national geologic trail.35
33 See https://savingplaces.org/stories/11-most-endangered-historic-places-2021#.YbeymS-B3BJ. 34 See https://www.nps.gov/subjects/nationaltrailssystem/national-historictrails.htm#:~:text=These%20trails%20follow%20past%20routes,%2C%20trail%20segments%2C%20and%20water
ways. 35 See https://www.pcta.org/our-work/national-trailssystem/#:~:text=President%20Lyndon%20Johnson%20signed%20the,Trails%20and%20National%20Recreation%2
0Trails.

17
Figure 2.1: Infographic containing events leading up, and following, to the Voting Rights March. Source: Encyclopædia
Britannica, Inc./Kenny Chmielewski.
The Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail consists of four sites – one in Selma,
one in White Hall, one near Lowndesboro, and the last one in Montgomery. Dr. King, various
other civil rights leaders and activists, and thousands of volunteer marchers stationed at a series
of four campsites located between Selma and Montgomery, consisting of three private
homesteads and a Catholic Church. Congress created the Selma to Montgomery National

18
Historic Trail in 1996 to honor the people, places, and events associated with the 1965 Voting
Rights March; the road has also been given the All-American Road designation.36 The Selma to
Montgomery National Historic Trail begins at Brown Chapel African Methodist Episcopal
(AME) Church in Selma going eastward along US Highway 80, crosses from Dallas County to
Lowndes County to Montgomery County, continues through the city of Montgomery, and
concludes at the Alabama State Capitol.
Due to the campsites and their stories not receiving any formal documentation or
recording, the stories of the families’ accounts of the March have just been passed down through
oral histories; oral histories can often have inconsistencies among them, as people remember and
retell things differently, or memories change over time. According to Phillip Howard, the
Program Manager of the Civil Rights People and Places Program at the Conservation Fund, there
was a meeting regarding the March that took place in the George Washington Carver
Neighborhood, which is a public housing project constructed for African Americans after World
War II.37 David Hall, owner of Campsite One, overheard this conversation and offered his
farmland to the marchers. For Campsite Two, it is alleged that civil rights leaders Stokely
Carmichael and Bob Mants reached out to Rosie Steele, the owner of the land and its store, and
asked if she would be willing to host the marchers. The wife of A.G. Gaston, one of the main
local financial supporters of the March, got word of the March and informed leaders to contact
Robert Gardner and inquire about staying on his property for the third night.
38 Dr. King had
36 A National Scenic Byway or All-American Road is designated by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal
Highway Administration. To be designated as a National Scenic Byway, a byway must meet one of six intrinsic
qualities: scenic, recreational, historic, natural, cultural, or archeological. To be designated as an All-American
Road, a road must be nationally significant with on-of-a-kind features and must be considered a “destination unto
itself”.
37 For more information regarding the George Washington Carver Neighborhood, see
https://www.nps.gov/semo/learn/historyculture/places.htm. 38 Information gathered from conversations with Phillip Howard on Sept. 28, 2023, and Dr. Cheryl Gardner Davis on
Nov. 20, 2023.

19
connections at the fourth campsite, the City of St. Jude, as the on-site hospital is where Dr.
King's oldest children were born years prior. Howard also mentioned that there is speculation
that Dr. King stayed at each campsite, with stories stating that he either stayed in a tractor trailer
on site, was staying at another house in Selma, or that he flew to Cleveland, Ohio on business.
According to Phillip Howard and The Conservation Fund, the campsites are currently not
being protected to the fullest extent and are at risk of further weathering and neglect.39 The
Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail is an integral part of United States history, and it
deserves thorough and immediate conservation. The sites along this Trail help to illustrate the
plight that Black Americans and African Americans had, and still currently face, in this country.
It would be devastating to lose these resources that represent such an important fragment of
history due to bias and ignorance, apathy, or inequitable and lacking conservation practice. We
are doing future generations a disservice by suppressing any component of heritage, staying
ignorant of any atrocities that have occurred, and dismissing the lessons we could be learning,
while also setting ourselves up to repeat past actions.
The Civil Rights Movement in the U.S. was born out of the centuries-long struggles of
enslaved Africans and their descendants to end racial oppression and abolish the institution of
slavery. After the American Civil War (1861-1865), the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments
(1868; 1870) to the U.S. Constitution guaranteed emancipation and basic civil rights to
previously enslaved African American men. African Americans and other Black Americans still
had many struggles when trying to ensure that their federal rights persisted over the course of the
next century. Other significant events of the Movement preceding the Selma to Montgomery
39 The Conservation Fund is a national organization committed to conserving land, combating climate change, and
building vibrant communities. For more information as pertains to this chapter, see
https://www.conservationfund.org/impact/blog/2797-conserving-land-and-history-in-alabama-s-black-belt.

20
marches include: the Brown vs. the Board of Education Supreme Court decision of 1954, the
murder of Emmett Till in 1955, the Civil Rights Act of 1957, The Freedom Rides in 1961,
Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and so
many more.
Part Two: Preservation Policy in Alabama
The main players in the state preservation scene in Alabama include the Alabama
Preservation Alliance (APA), the Alabama Trust for Historic Preservation (ATHP), and the
Alabama Historical Commission (AHC). The Alabama Trust for Historic Preservation is a
501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization that was organized and incorporated as the Alabama
Preservation Alliance in 1987; the Alabama Preservation Alliance is a state-wide, volunteer-run
preservation organization.
40 Partnering with the Alabama Historical Commission, in 1994 the
two organizations created the ‘Endangered Properties Program’ to identify and raise awareness
of historic places in the state that are in imminent danger of drifting into oblivion. The ‘Places in
Peril Program’ through the Alabama Historical Commission and the Alabama Trust is a similar
program that identifies and preserves historic sites by raising public awareness of the endangered
status of sites. The Alabama Historical Commission was created in 1966 and stands for the
preservation and promotion of state-owned historic sites as public attractions and institutes
statewide programs to assist with local preservation activities.41 In 1984, the Commission created
the Black Heritage Council (BHC) as a way to support and advocate for the preservation of
Alabama’s African American historic places; at the time of its founding, the BHC was the first of
its kind at the state level of preservation.
40 See https://alabamatrust.co/about-us/. 41 See https://ahc.alabama.gov/.

21
The state of Alabama receives preservation-related funding from The Historic
Preservation Fund, which is administered by the National Park Service; they routinely direct
these funds toward sites and properties that are not owned by, nor is their funding approved by,
those affected by said history, as they are a private agency of the federal government.
42 Historic
sites and commemorative monuments in Alabama with Black owners or individuals who were
directly involved in the Civil Rights Movement are nowhere near as plentiful as commemorative
sites with non-Black owners. A few of the sites that are Black-owned would include the Jackson
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) House, the Safe House Black History
Museum, the Ballard Family House, and the Jackson Community House and Museum.43
While the Selma, Lowndes County, and Montgomery Interpretive Centers are incredible
resources that are located along the Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail, they are
private institutions and run by the National Park Service (NPS), with no direct affiliation to
surviving individuals of the Civil Rights Movement. Every memorial or commemorative site
does not need to be a product of Black families with ties to the Civil Rights Movement, but
consistently having others tell our stories can lead to misinterpretation and miscommunication
and can possibly result in the erasure of important pieces of history that coincide with Black
identity and existence. Looking through the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage, a
large amount of the listings are under Criteria C for Architecture, or Criteria A for Religion, but
not nearly as many under Criteria A for Ethnic Heritage (specifically African Americans);
considering the extensive history regarding civil rights that African Americans and Black
42 For more information on the Historic Preservation Fund, see
https://www.nps.gov/subjects/historicpreservationfund/index.htm. 43 Others would include: the Sullivan and Richie Jean Sherrod Jackson Museum, the Dr. Richard Harris House, the
Ben Moore Hotel and Malden Brothers Barbershop, the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church and
Parsonage Museum, etc.

22
Americans have had in the state of Alabama, there should not be such a low number of sites
regarding Black and African American heritage that are being protected.44
The campsites along the Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail were listed on the
Alabama Register in 2021, but they still are lacking in funding and physical preservation efforts.
In the two years since their designation, the sites have continued to deteriorate, and are still in
danger of being lost. While being designated on any level does not automatically save these
places, they are listed in efforts to garner attention, which can lead to funding and protection for
these places. The campsites are incredibly important pieces of not only Black and Alabamian
history, but of United States history. They tell the story and are physical representations of
triumph and perseverance that no history textbooks or signage could entirely capture. We must
ensure the longevity of these places that we are fortunate enough to still have.
Part Three: The Voting Rights March of 1965
The violent murder of protester and civil rights activist Jimmie Lee Jackson by law
enforcement officers was ultimately the catalyst that sparked the voting marches to Montgomery.
Jackson was a twenty-six-year-old Black man who was born in Marion, Alabama in 1938
(Biography.com Editors, 2020).
45 After fighting in the Vietnam War, he returned home where he
worked as a laborer and woodcutter. Jackson became a deacon, being the youngest one at St.
James Baptist Church, and was active in his community’s civil rights events and protests. On
February 18, 1965, Jackson was directly protesting the arrest of Reverend James Orange, a local
minister who was leading efforts to help register Black people to vote, while also protesting the
44 Alabama Register of Landmarks & Heritage. Alabama Historical Commission. (n.d.-b).
https://ahc.alabama.gov/AlabamaRegisterPDFs/Alabama%20Register%20of%20Landmarks%20&%20Heritage%20
Property%20Listing%20(for%20web)%20April%202019.pdf. 45 Biography.com Editors. “Jimmie Lee Jackson Biography.” Biography.com, July 7, 2020.
https://www.biography.com/activists/jimmie-lee-jackson.

23
disenfranchisement and voter suppression that was inflicted upon Black Americans and many
other communities. The protest that Jackson was attending was to start with a meeting at the
Zion Methodist Church (now Zion Church) in Marion, and then a march to the jailhouse on the
next block where Rev. Orange was being held (Fields, 2020). Local and State police were
waiting for the protesters outside of the church in the darkness, as the streetlights were either
turned off or shot out. Violence broke out as law enforcement officers started attacking protesters
with clubs and tear gas. Jimmie Lee Jackson reportedly was feeling ill that night, but still brought
his mother and grandfather to the church meeting and was just waiting around to take them
home. When his grandfather, Cager Lee, was attacked by police, Jimmie Lee Jackson came to
help them and pulled him inside of a local hangout, Mack’s Cafe. Officers followed them to the
cafe, knocking out the light, and swinging at those inside, hitting Jackson’s mother, Viola
Jackson, and knocking her to the floor. It was then that Jackson got into a struggle with several
officers while trying to protect his mother and was shot in the stomach by state trooper James
Bonard Fowler.46
46 The state trooper who shot Jackson was prosecuted decades later by DA Michael Jackson, Perry County’s first
Black district attorney. Fowler pleaded guilty in 2010 to manslaughter and served five months in jail.

24
Figure 2.2: Newspaper or magazine clipping of a headline announcing Jimmie Lee Jackson's murder, Feb. 18, 1695. Source:
WSFA.
Jackson was taken to Good Samaritan, the Black hospital in Selma, where he died eight days
later, leaving behind his mother, grandfather, daughter, and community who loved him. During
Jackson’s funeral, Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) strategist and Selma
campaign manager Rev. James Bevel envisioned the people of Selma and Marion “going to see
the King”, bringing Jackson’s body and laying him, and their demands, at the steps of the
Alabama Capitol building for Governor George Wallace to see.47
47 Catherine Fleming Bruce, The Sustainers, (South Carolina: TNOVSA LLC, 2019), 151.

25
Figure 2.3: Bearing of Jimmie Lee Jackson's casket at Brown Chapel AME Baptist Church, March 3, 1965. Source: Getty
Images, Bettmann Collection, https://www.gettyimages.co.nz.
The March from Selma to Montgomery was in part to protest the senseless killing of
Jimmie Lee Jackson and numerous others, as well as the continuous suppression of Black voters
despite the Civil Rights Act of 1957. On March 7, 1965, or what is known as "Bloody Sunday,"
the first attempt at this crusade took place. Sen. John Lewis was among the few hundred
marchers who crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge to enter the city limits of Selma, Alabama. A
brigade of state troopers and other officers, all equipped with gas masks, were waiting for the

26
marchers at the foot of the bridge. Law enforcement tear gassed and beat marchers in the streets,
who were also attacked by “‘possemen’ and white thugs” on horseback.48
Figure 2.4: Selma marchers being tear gassed by law enforcement, March 7, 1965. Source: SNCC Digital Gateway Archive.
https://www.crmvet.org/images/imgselma.htm.
Before attempting the march to Montgomery once more, protesters spent two days in Selma
planning and organizing. With the help of the Legal Defense Fund (LDF), lawyers Fred Gray,
Solomon Seay, Jr., Oscar Adams, Jr., and Demetrius Newton were able to file a lawsuit against
George Wallace the governor of Alabama, which resulted in U.S. District Court Judge Frank M.
Johnson authorizing a future march, and ordering for federal protection for marchers; President
Lyndon B. Johnson also sent his support through telegram to Martin Luther King, Jr.’s lawyer,
Clarence B. Jones.49 Almost a thousand union members, clerics, and other supporters returned to
the Edmund Pettus Bridge on March 9, often known as "Turnaround Tuesday". This time, leaders
merely led the group in prayer before returning to their original meeting location at the Brown
48 NPS Story Map Journal. (n.d.-a).
https://www.nps.gov/gis/storymaps/mapjournal/v2/index.html?appid=1656e9dc45e74ae78dc7549d1ef725b0
49 For more information on the LDF’s role in the Movement, see https://www.naacpldf.org/ldf-at-selma/williams-vwallace/. For the telegram from the White House, see
https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/sites/default/files/image/selma_telegram_to_lbj_1280.jpg.

27
Chapel AME Baptist Church. The Brown Chapel AME Church, located in the George
Washington Carver Neighborhood, acted as a host for the Southern Christian Leadership
Conference (SCLC) for quite some time, and is also the starting post for several marches and
protests; this neighborhood is where hundreds of members of the SCLC and the Student
Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) lived with their families. The notable Selma to
Montgomery March began its final, and successful, pursuit on March 21, 1965, after securing
court-ordered protection from Federal District Court Judge Frank M. Johnson, Jr. of Alabama,
and the National Guard.
On March 21, 1965, thousands of protesters began the four-day, fifty-four-mile journey
from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. The marchers walked for seven miles to the first of the
four campsites along the Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail.50 They reached the
farmland of local Black farmer David Hall, who gave the marchers use of his land in
appreciation for their bravery and selflessness. As stated by members of the Hall Family, “An
advance crew had set up tents for separate men’s and women’s camps, supplies and first aid, and
a Selma church supplied the supper meal. Physicians and nurses among the marchers attended to
the ill and injured. Volunteer security guards patrolled the camp because the marchers didn’t trust
the National Guardsmen, who were white Alabamans.”51 On this first night, marchers were able
to stay warm by making bonfires in old metal drums.
50 https://www.nps.gov/semo/learn/historyculture/places.htm 51 Ibid.

28
Figure 2.5: David Hall farm, undated. Source: Endia Harris.
Figure 2.6: Marchers staying warm by a fire inside of a metal drum. March 21st, 1965. Source: Independent via AP news wire,
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/selmatomontgomery-march.
Early the next morning on March 22, marchers started back on their way to Montgomery.
The protesters traveled twenty miles before arriving at the home of Rosie Steele, a 78-year-old
Black citizen of Lowndes County, Alabama. In addition to Steele's home, this property also had a

29
small grocery store and a filling station that unfortunately had ant infestations on the premises.52
The ants were just one of many misfortunes that occurred at this site—food that was sent for the
marchers from Selma was cold by the time it arrived at the campsite, and this night was filled
with rain, causing the property to be covered in mud by the time morning came.
Figure 2.7: Steele Farmland, date unknown. Source: Endia Harris.
On March 23 before continuing the way, the marchers made impromptu protective rain
gear out of plastic garbage bags and pieces of cardboard. After trekking through heavy rains all
day, the drenched marchers arrived at the farm of Lowndes County residents Robert and Mary
Gardner, to be greeted with yet another mud-covered sleeping arrangement. The situation was
not all bad, as Tuskegee Institute students were there to welcome them with pitched tents and a
hot meal. Some marchers were able to sleep on pool inflatables as temporary air mattresses,
while others took cover under the farm's porch overhead. Cheryl Gardner Davis, daughter of
52 The name of the store is unknown.

30
Robert Gardner, was just four years old at the time of the March; she reminisces on hearing the
crowds outside of her home that night, but also being scared of seeing the flashing lights and
guns of the National Guardsmen. She remembers her family having to be discreet about the
situation for many years, as her father received threats from white neighbors regarding the event:
“‘I remember my father telling us that we couldn't go anywhere by ourselves, that we always had
to have an adult with us. He said if we saw a car along the road that was the FBI watching over
us,” said Davis. “It was a little scary.” (Reeves, 2021).
Figure 2.8: Gardner Farmland, undated. Source: Endia Harris.

31
Figure 2.9: Marchers blow up makeshift air mattresses, March 23, 1965. Source: Getty Images, Bettmann Collection.
By March 24, the number of marchers had grown to over 5,000 participants as they made
their way through Montgomery County to the final campsite at City of St. Jude, a Catholic
institution just on the outskirts of Montgomery, Alabama that has long been a place of solace for
the surrounding community. The facility has a school and a hospital, the latter of which being the
country's first integrated hospital in the Southeast. That night, a celebration took place to honor
the marchers in what is known as the “Stars for Freedom Rally,” hosted by Harry Belafonte; the
rally consisted of a flatbed trailer-turned-stage with Hollywood singers and stars such as Sammy
Davis Jr.; Joan Baez; Tony Bennett; Mahalia Jackson; Julius “Nipsey” Russell; Peter, Paul and
Mary; Nina Simone; Ella Fitzgerald; and many others.53
53 For more on the Starts to Freedom Rally, see http://npshistory.com/brochures/semo/stars-for-freedom-rally.pdf.

32
Figure 2.10: Nina Simone performing at the "Stars for Freedom Rally”, 1965. Source: Civil Rights Digital Library,
https://crdl.usg.edu/record/aar_amg_40850?canvas=0&x=402&y=248&w=1398.
Figure 2.11: Marchers leaving the City of St. Jude, 1965. Source: Civil Rights Digital Library,
https://crdl.usg.edu/record/aar_amg_40669?canvas=0&x=360&y=246&w=1295.
Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and activist Andrew Young led the marches into
downtown Montgomery the following morning, on March 25. Over 12,000 demonstrators, both
Black and white, made their way through the streets for four miles to the state Capitol, where
over 25,000 people gathered to hear Dr. King speak from the building's front steps. Alabama
Governor George Wallace declined to approach the protesters and issued a warning to white
residents to avoid the streets surrounding the Capitol. Dr. King addressed the Governor, and the

33
institution of white supremacy, with these words: “They told us we wouldn’t get here. And there
were those who said that we would get here only over their dead bodies, but all the world today
knows that we are here and we are standing before the forces of power in the state of Alabama
saying, ‘We ain’t goin’ let nobody turn us around.’”54 The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was enacted
on August 6, 1965, resulting, in part, due to Dr. King's sacrifices and the devotion of the
thousands who participated in the March.
Part Four: The Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail + Campsites
In the documentary film 54 Miles to Home (2021), the relatives of the owners of the first
three campsites of Selma to Montgomery are the focal point of a discussion regarding their place
in forgotten United States history and racial justice. As stated by narrator and producer Phillip
Howard, there are (at the time of filming) no current conservation efforts in place for any of the
campsites due to lack of awareness and funding. He also mentions that making a strategy to deal
with the property problems and managing complex family dynamics, as there are over 150 heirs
among the campsites, are also challenges that are posed. At the second campsite, the home and
store of Rosie Steele were “mysteriously burned to the ground”, this leaves only the homes of the
Hall and Gardner families still standing.55 The Brown Chapel AME Church in Selma was added
to the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s 2022 Most Endangered Places list and had to
close its doors for the foreseeable future due to termite damage.56 The National Trust for Historic
Preservation deemed the church unfit to continue to serve as a community resource, or to host
guests or events in their space; there is a crude irony in this, as Brown Chapel did not even close
54 For full speech, see https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/our-god-marching. 55 Mentioned by Rozelia Harris and Elizabeth Davis, Steele’s granddaughters, in 54 Miles to Home. It is speculated
by some family members that the fire was set because of what Steele had done to help the marchers. Steele herself
believes that there might have been curtains near an open flame. No formal investigation was done. The year of the
fire is also not mentioned.
56 For full list, see: https://savingplaces.org/stories/11-most-endangered-historic-places-for-2022#.YnL5gBPMI6W.

34
its doors to the public during 1965 when federal and state courts were restricting mass meetings
in Black churches (Greer, 2023). In the cases of both Brown Chapel and the two remaining
campsites, obtaining funding and recognition are significant factors in the lack of preservation
efforts that have been made. Phillip Howard and The Conservation Fund are raising awareness of
the sites to garner potential partners and donors to help fund the restoration of the sites and fulfill
the desires of what each family wishes for their land.
It was previously established what exactly a National Historic Trail is, but is that an
appropriate designation? Looking through the list of other Historic Trails, over half of them are
related to the establishment of the United States in some way (i.e. colonization, war, early
developments, etc.), with a few related to Indigenous cultures, and landscapes and wildlife.57 The
Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail is the only National Historic Trail of its kind, most
likely the reason as to why it feels a bit out of place. Due to the nature of these historic trails, this
type of designation does not benefit the family members of the campsites, the campsites
themselves, or even the land they sit on; all this designation does is highlight the road from
Selma to Montgomery that was taken by Dr. King and fellow marchers. While it is important to
recognize the actual pathway, it does not hold as much weight, or truly encapsulate the
magnitude of what the experience of the March was, without also fully incorporating the
campsites within the narrative. Since the families are still living on their respective lands, there
would need to be protocols in place to ensure their safety and impede vandalism or violence, but
their stories deserve to be told in their proper context, not just existing within the walls of their
homes that the community does not even know exist.
57 For more information and to see other National Historic Trails, see
https://www.nps.gov/subjects/nationaltrailssystem/national-historic-trails.htm.

35
These tangible pieces of our past serve as physical representations of the triumphs and
tribulations that those before us faced and overcame, and it is the duty of those in the present and
future generations to remember, celebrate, and uphold this heritage within our communities. The
work of communities is instrumental in the process of local designations and grants a high level
of protection for private homeowners (Heffern & Gibson, 2023). Community and grassroots
organizations are responsible for encouraging other members of the community to support causes
that directly affect the surrounding neighborhoods by voting, fundraising, or simply being open
to having the important conversations. If conservation-minded organizations mobilize to protect
the campsites, then legal action could be taken to get a local designation for the sites; fundraising
for the designation process, as well as for the rehabilitation and restoration of the sites can be
facilitated by these local organizations. But before any of this can be done, awareness needs to be
spread about the existence of the campsites, and of their feeble status.
Phillip Howard and The Conservation Fund are planning for the 60th anniversary of the
Selma to Montgomery March in 2025. Howard hopes that with “the eyes of the world on
Montgomery”, that the history and stories can be reintroduced to the public and garner more
support for the conservation of the sites.58 Howard also mentions that people come to Selma and
Montgomery to celebrate the anniversary of Bloody Sunday, but not in commemoration of the
March itself. Not having the March included as part of these celebrations is doing a great
disservice to the campsites and their respective families, as that level of awareness could have
crucial benefits. Not having the entire story being a part of the narrative lessens the impact of the
history, and makes it seem as though there are parts that are less important than others. This in
itself is an act of violence. Weakening a story or only highlighting certain aspects while ignoring
58 Information gathered from conversation with Phillip Howard on Sept. 28, 2023.

36
others, whether intentionally or not, is not the proper way to honor any element of history. The
work being done by Howard and The Conservation Fund in preparation for the 60th anniversary
of Bloody Sunday and all aspects of the Selma to Montgomery March will hopefully
reincorporate the March and campsites in this piece of history.

37
CHAPTER 3: CASE STUDY - THE EMMETT TILL MEMORIAL SIGNS
Introduction
The story of Emmett Till’s life, murder, and legacy is one that has been changed and
distorted for decades. Until doing research for this thesis, I did not know the true nature of this
crime, nor all the horror that followed. It is a shame that the whole truth regarding this case is not
known and will never be known because most people involved are deceased. I am hoping that
the relaying of this history and discussion of its associated sites will create a new sense of
consciousness for this immensely important piece of history.
Part One: Historical Background 59
In 1955, Emmett “Bobo” Till, a fourteen-year-old from Chicago, Illinois, went to visit his
family in Money, Mississippi. Prior to going to Mississippi, his mother, Mamie Till (later TillMobley) warned her son about the dangers of the South, and to be careful about when and how
he interacted with white people. Till and his cousin, Wheeler Parker, arrived in Mississippi on
August 21st, and were staying with his great-uncle Moses Wright and his grandson. A few days
after his arrival, Till and his cousins went into Bryant’s Meat and Grocery Market after a day of
picking cotton.
59 A continuously updated list of all those associated with the Emmett Till case has been compiled by Devery
Anderson, and can be seen here: https://www.deveryanderson.com/whos-who-in-the-emmett-till-case.

38
Figure 3.1: Photograph of Bryant Grocery and Meat Market in 1955. Source: Special Collections & Archives, Florida State
University Libraries.
There are many speculations and inconsistencies regarding what really happened inside of the
store, but most sources state that Till allegedly whistled, or made some type of advance toward
Caroline Bryant, the store owner's wife, before he and his cousins swiftly left the store.60 Four
days later, in the early morning of August 28, Bryant’s husband Roy Bryant, and his half-brother,
J.W. Milam, drove to Wright’s home looking for Till in the depths of the night. Confronted at
gunpoint, Till was kidnapped by the men, and was forced to carry a seventy-five-pound cotton
gin fan down near the Tallahatchie River, where he was then violently beaten, shot in the head,
and had the cotton gin fan tied to his neck with barbed wire, and his body was thrown into the
river. On August 31, Emmett Till’s corpse was found floating in the river; when retrieved it was
discovered that he had been pistol whipped, leaving the back of his skull cracked and other parts
crushed and crumbled, both his wrists broken, one of his eyes had been gouged out and the other
60 While most people who were involved in this incident are no longer living, Till’s cousins, Simeon Wright and
Wheeler Parker state that Till did whistle at Bryant. Till was obviously unable to tell his version of the truth, and
Bryant’s initial statements and testimony do not match, leaving what truly happened that day a bit of a mystery.

39
hanging from the nerve. The only way that Till was able to be identified was by the silver ring on
his finger that belonged to his father that was given to him by his mother prior to traveling to
Mississippi.
Upon hearing that her son was kidnapped, Mamie Till-Mobley started to contact civil
rights leaders and others with cultural and political power in the Black community in Chicago.
She insisted that her son be brought back home to Chicago, and not immediately buried
somewhere in Mississippi like the Sheriff was planning on doing. The Sheriff in Mississippi only
agreed to return Till’s body to Chicago under the condition that the casket remain closed
indefinitely (Berger, 2017). Till’s mother insisted on having an open-casket funeral, so that the
world could see what racism and violence had done to her son. The four-day funeral service and
viewing from September 3-6 was held at Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ and over
50,000 people attended the service and witnessed Till’s battered body.
Figure 3.2: Mamie Till next to her son's casket at his funeral, on Sept. 6th, 1955 in Chicago. Source: Chicago-Sun
Times/Associated Press via NYT, https://archive.nytimes.com.
Photographs of Till and his mother from a few weeks prior were hung in his casket so funeralgoers could see what he truly looked like. Images of Till in his casket were distributed to
newspapers both locally and nationally, as well as in Jet magazine; this along with the national

40
television coverage of the funeral now made it nearly impossible for the country to be oblivious
to the racial violence happening everywhere.61
Figure 3.3: Scan of Jet Magazine from Sept. 15th, 1955. Source: Jet Magazine via Flickr,
https://www.flickr.com/photos/vieilles_annonces/1386496942.
Roy Bryant and W.J. Milam were arrested for kidnapping (which they admitted to) later
in the same day they took Emmett Till from his home; after his body was found, the men were
then charged with murder. The murder trial took place at the segregated Tallahatchie County
61 Jet is a Chicago-based African American magazine.

41
Courthouse about two weeks after Till’s funeral. The jury was all-male and all-white, and there
were only four Black testimonies: from Till’s mother, his grandfather Moses Wright, and
Amanda Bradley and Willie Reed, the two individuals who witnessed Bryant and Milam near
Milam's barn where they heard screaming and then saw the men leaving with a body.62 In Moses
Wright’s testimony, he states that when Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam were leaving his home, he
heard the men ask someone in their truck if Till was the boy from the store, and the voice replied
“Yes”; Wright also mentioned that the voice was “a lighter voice than a man’s.”63
Figure 3.4: Till's uncle, Moses Wright, identifying J. W. Milam during the murder trial. Source: Ernest Withers from The Chicago
Times via Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmett_Till#/media.
62 The testimony of Wille Reed can be seen here: http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/till/Reed.pdf.
Immediately following the trial, Reed was escorted Chicago, Illinois by T.R.M Howard, local Black doctor and Civil
Rights Activist, and eventually changed his name to Willie Louis to protect himself. See
https://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/25/us/willie-louis-who-named-the-killers-of-emmett-till-at-their-trial-dies-at76.html. 63 Whitfield, Stephen J. A Death in the Delta: the story of Emmett Till. (Baltimore: The John Hopkins University
Press), 1988.

42
Carolyn Bryant also testified, stating that Till accosted her, made crude remarks, and expressed
his prior experience with white women. The defense offered many different accounts of what
happened that night, and their arguments ended up being that Emmett Till was still alive, being
hidden somewhere with the help of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored
People (NAACP), and they had put another body in the river as a cover up (Hassan, 2023). The
trial lasted five days, with an extraordinary turnout of Northern-based press and reporters coming
down to Mississippi to document the trial, and over 400 bystanders and onlookers stuffed into
the little second-floor courtroom that was going to change history. Highly revered journalist
David Halberstam, who was working at the West Point, MS newspaper at the time, referred to
the trial as “the first great media event of the Civil Rights Movement” (Halberstam, 1993).64 On
September 23, after deliberating the evidence (i.e. the witness testimonies, Till’s ring identifying
his body) against Bryant and Milam for less than an hour, the jury acquitted both men, stating
that the State failed to properly identify the body; the men were also not charged with
kidnapping, despite previously admitting to it the authorities that they kidnapped Till.65 Mamie
Till-Mobley did not stay for the reading of the verdict, because she was anticipating an unjust
end to the case.66 After the trial ended, Bryant and Milam went to Look magazine and confessed
to kidnapping and killing Emmett Till, but due to the acquittal, the men could not be retried; they
also received $4,000 for their magazine story.67 The outrage over the lack of indictment for
Bryant and Milam led to the boycott of their store, which eventually closed, and both families
moved to Texas.
64 David Halberstam, The Fifties. (New York: Villard Books), 1993.
65 The kidnapping and murder of Till, along with the acquittal of his murderers was a catalyst for the Civil Rights
Movement. See https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1019&context=communication_theses.
66 “Life Story: Mamie Till-Mobley (1921-2003).” Women & the American Story. Accessed January 11, 2024.
https://wams.nyhistory.org/growth-and-turmoil/cold-war-beginnings/mamie-till-mobley/.
67 To read the story that was published in Look Magazine, see
http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/till/confession.html.

43
In 2004, the FBI reopened Emmett Till’s case, stating that it was possible that others were
involved in his kidnapping and murder, and exhumed his body to perform an autopsy that was
not previously performed before his initial burial. The case was closed in 2007, when the state of
Mississippi did not prosecute any additional parties; a formal apology was issued for the 1955
acquittals this same year, stating that it was “a terrible miscarriage of justice.” 68 In 2017, The
Blood of Emmett Till, a book written by Tim Tyson, revealed that Carolyn Bryant lied during her
testimony during the 1955 trial, and recanted her statements that Till touched, threatened, and
harassed her. Bryant said that “nothing that boy did could ever justify what happened to him.”69
Despite this confession, a grand jury still did not indict Carolyn Bryant for her participation in
this crime in 2022. Later this year, President Joe Biden amended the Emmett Till Antilynching
Act of 2019, making lynching a federal hate crime.
Part Two: Preservation Policy in Mississippi
Preservation policy within the state of Mississippi, much like many states in the southern
United States, has a history of devoting its funding and resources toward places that are related
to the memory of the Confederacy and the Antebellum Period. Many of the National Register of
Historic Places listings in the State of Mississippi are also related to architecture, slavery/cotton
production, or the Confederacy. Despite the Till case inspiring national movements and policies,
there is only one site listed on the National Register for its relation to this case: the Tallahatchie
County Second District Courthouse.70 There is some suspicion by locals that County officials
were trying to cover up Till’s story and its relation to the courthouse, as the courthouse
underwent drastic renovations and changes in the mid-1970s by architect Jack DeCell; during the
68 For full apology, see https://www.emmett-till.org/apology. 69 Timothy B. Tyson, The Blood of Emmett Till. (New York: Simon & Schuster), 2017. 70 For the National Register of Historic Places registration form for the Tallahatchie County Second District
Courthouse, see https://catalog.archives.gov/id/73892043.

44
DeCell renovation, the cotton gin fan that was used to weigh down Till’s body had also
vanished.71 The courthouse was also listed on the Mississippi Landmarks list in 1990, but the
listing was solely for architecture.72 Starting in 2005, the Emmett Till Memorial Commission
began to undo the renovations done by DeCell, and rectify the narrative that the 1990 designation
had created. Starting in 2010, Mississippi-based architecture firm Belinda Stewart Architects, PA
began renovations and enhancement to the courthouse, restoring original features both interior
and exterior, while also updating the courthouse by adding elevators and other Americans with
Disabilities Act (ADA) modifications.
73 The courthouse reopened in 2015 and continues to
operate as a courthouse, as well as a living memorial to the 1955 trial for the murder of Emmett
Till.74
The central preservation-related organizations within the state include the Mississippi
Heritage Trust (MHT) and the Mississippi Department of Archives and History (MDAH). The
MHT is a 501 (c)(3) not-for-profit organization that was created in 1992 by a passionate group of
preservationists who wanted to help smaller organizations to protect “Mississippi’s rich
architectural legacy.”75 This organization hosts its own programs, such as the 10 Most
Endangered Historic Places in Mississippi (est. 1999) and the Mississippi Historic Preservation
Conference and Awards (est. 1999). The 10 Most Endangered Historic places in Mississippi
listings include historic school buildings, historic districts or towns, or individual properties that
have historic significance. Over its twenty-four years of existence, twenty-two of 140 sites have
71 Dave Tell, “Sumner Courthouse - the Trial, the Architecture, the Controversy.” Emmett Till Memory Project.
Accessed January 11, 2024. https://tillapp.emmett-till.org/items/show/9. 72 For Mississippi Landmark documentation, see https://tillapp.emmett-till.org/files/show/93. 73 Full details of the Belinda Stewart Architects, PA work on the Tallahatchie County Second District Courthouse can
be seen here: https://belindastewartarchitects.com/portfolio/tallahatchie-county-courthouse-restoration-2/. 74 According to Wikipedia, the courthouse no longer operates as a museum. Unable to verify this statement. See
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tallahatchie_County_Courthouse#cite_note-3. 75 “About MHT.” Mississippi Heritage Trust. Accessed January 11, 2024.
https://www.mississippiheritage.com/about.

45
been recognized for their relation to African American history.76 The Mississippi Historic
Preservation Conference and Awards honors individuals who have a love for conservation and
history, organizations who are doing preservation work, projects that have undergone exceptional
restoration, etc. The programs run by MHT are used to raise awareness of heritage sites within
the state that may need more preservation funding or rehabilitation, or to further highlight sites of
importance. They also have developed school curriculums to teach children the importance of
preserving heritage resources, and support stabilization and community efforts to help those
affected by natural disasters to repair their properties. The MDAH was founded in 1902 as a
comprehensive, historical state agency in order to collect, preserve, and provide accessibility to
archival resources and materials.77 The organization is split into five divisions: Administration,
Archives & Records Services, Historic Preservation, Programs & Communication, and
Museums. As it pertains most to this thesis, the Historic Preservation division of the MDAH
oversees the historic preservation programs/services, as well as archaeological and preservation
planning resources. The historic preservation department assists in the funding and support of
preservation/archaeological projects and maintenance; they also manage the Section 106
reviews, the Mississippi Landmark Program, the Rehabilitation Tax Credit programs, and much
more. While both the MHT and MDAH are doing great work in preserving historic Mississippi,
the Black history and sites there are not receiving the attention and conservation that they
deserve. As many elements related to the Till case have been lost, destroyed, or are currently in
danger of deterioration, it is eminent that we engage in targeted conservation efforts for this
dynamic time in history.
76 All sites included 10 Most Endangered Historic Preservation in Mississippi can be seen at
https://www.10mostms.com/past-lists. Bryant Grocery and Meat Market was included in the list from 2005. The
Isaiah T. Montgomery House was included in the list from 2013.
77 See https://www.mdah.ms.gov/about-mdah.

46
Part Three: Memorial Signs + Review of Previous Efforts
There are many signs and remembered sites related to Emmett Till’s life and murder that
are located both in Mississippi and Chicago, Illinois; all signs were erected between 2007 and
2008.78
Figure 3.5: Marker at M.B. Lowe's Glendora Gin. Photographed By Mark Hilton, October 18, 2015.
A historic marker is placed outside of the M.B. Lowe’s Glendora Gin (now the Emmett Till
Historic Intrepid Center), the place where Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam stole the cotton gin fan
that they tied to Till’s body before throwing him in the Tallahatchie River.79
78 It can be assumed that signs started being erected between 2007 and 2008, following the acquittal of Carolyn
Bryant in 2007, and the apology by the ETMC on behalf of Tallahatchie citizens to the Till family in 2007. 79 The Emmett Till Intrepid Center (also known as the E.T.H.I.C Museum) was established in 2005 by Mayor
Johnny B. Thomas, and serves as an educational center about the brutality of Till’s story in hopes to inspire healing
and inform the future. For more information, see https://glendorams.com.

47
Figure 3.6: Marker at Tutwiler Funeral Home. Photographed By Mark Hilton, May 23, 2021.
The Tutwiler Funeral Home in Tallahatchie County, Mississippi is where Emmett Till’s body was
prepared by embalmer H.D. Malone before being sent back home to his mother in Chicago. The
sign marking the importance of this location also states how Till’s uncle, Crosby Smith, was
made to sign a document committing to not opening the casket. Till’s mother, Mamie TillMobley, defied the order, insisting on showing the world what racial violence had done to her
son (Hilton 2021).
80 The original Tutwiler Funeral Home has fallen into disrepair, and operation
takes place in a neighboring building.
80 Mark Hilton, “Tutwiler Funeral Home Historical Marker.” Historical Marker Database, December 11, 2021.
https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=173985.

48
Figure 3.7: Marker at King's Place. Photographed By Mark Hilton, October 18, 2015.
The sign that is located at King’s Place marks the site where Black reporter, James Hicks,
discovered information that was imperative to Till’s murder trial (Hilton, 2016). Hicks was
approached by a young woman who asked if he was working on the Emmett Till trial and told
that he should speak to a woman about a potential witness to the murder. Hicks was then told to
go to King’s Place, a local juke joint, to gather more information for the trial and found two
witnesses, Levi “Too Tight” Collins and Henry Lee Loggins, who worked for J.W. Milam. The
men were made to assist Milam and Roy Bryant in the abduction and torture of Till and
confirmed that Till was taken to the Milam Plantation. Prior to the trial, Collins and Loggins
were taken to county jail over twenty miles away to keep them away from the trial. Even though
they were not able to testify in the trial, the information learned at King’s Place still plays an
important part in the story of Emmett Till. A few other marked sites associated with Till include
the Tallahatchie County Second District Courthouse where the five-day murder trial took place,
J.W. Milam’s house and barn where Till was taken to, and the site where Clinton Melton, a
Mississippi Black man, was gunned down over an alleged dispute at a gas station, by Elmer

49
Kimball, who was a friend of J.W. Milam, roughly two-and-a-half months following Till’s
murder trial (Hilton, 2020). Some other memorials include:
o In 1991, the city of Chicago renamed a seven-mile stretch of 71st Street to be “Emmett Till
Road.”81
o In 2005, prior to the Emmett Till Memorial Commission formation, an overpass over the Dan
Ryan Expressway in the Mississippi Delta was renamed the “Emmett Till Memorial
Bridge.”82
o In 2006, the James McCosh Elementary School in Chicago was renamed the Emmett Louis
Till Math and Science Academy. It is now called the Emmett Till Fine and Performing Arts
Magnet School (Chicago Daily Journal).
83
o In 2009, Till’s casket was found after being abandoned in a shed in rural Mississippi
following the exhuming of his body in 2005. The casket is now displayed in the Smithsonian
Museum in Washington, D.C. 84
o In 2022, a statue in Till’s likeness was erected in Greenwood, Mississippi. It is one of few
statues of Till in the world.85
The sign that sits near Graball Landing, the site on the Tallahatchie River where it is assumed
Till’s body was found, was donated by the Emmett Till Memorial Commission (ETMC) in
2007.
86 The following year after this sign was placed, it was stolen and thrown into the
Tallahatchie River. A second sign was placed in the same spot but was shot over 317 times.87 The
third sign that went up in 2018 was only in place for thirty-five days before it was also riddled
with bullet holes.88 This sign gained media attention when multiple students from the Kappa
Alpha fraternity of the University of Mississippi were pictured posing in front of the vandalized
sign holding rifles. The fourth and current memorial sign was installed at the site in 2019 by the
81 See https://www.chipublib.org/blogs/post/emmett-tills-legacy-60-years-after-his-murder/. 82 Ibid. 83 McCosh Elementary was an all-Black elementary school that Emmett Till attended. For more information, see
https://www.emmetttillelementary.com. 84 See https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/emmett-tills-casket-goes-to-the-smithsonian-144696940/. 85 $ 150,000 in state funding for the statue was secured by Sen. David Jordan of Greenwood. For more information,
see: https://www.npr.org/2022/10/21/1130419579/mississippi-town-with-confederate-monument-gets-emmett-tillstatue. 86 The Emmett Till Memorial Commission was founded in 2006 by Jerome G. Little, the first African American
President of the Tallahatchie County Board of Supervisors. It is now referred to as the Emmett Till Interpretive
Center. See https://www.emmett-till.org/history. 87 This sign was displayed in an exhibit in the Smithsonian National Museum of History from Sept. 3 - Oct. 5, 2021. 88 See https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/06/us/emmett-till-sign-vandalized-trnd/index.html.

50
ETMC, and is made of steel, weighs over 500 pounds, is covered with bulletproof glass, and is
surrounded by security cameras and alarms.89 Within weeks, security camera footage captured
images of white supremacists rallying at the site.90
Figure 3.8: Marker at Graball Landing. This is the fourth sign erected on the site. Source: ETMC, 2019; accessed via
Washington Post.
89 See https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/20/us/emmett-till-memorial-bulletproof-trnd/index.html. 90 See https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/03/us/emmett-till-memorial-white-supremacist-group-video/index.html.

51
Figure 3.9: Photo of members of "League of the South", a white supremacist hate group, standing at the Graball Landing sign.
Source: Sumner Courthouse and ETIC,2019, accessed via CNN.
Having to continuously replace and monitor the signs commemorating the atrocities that Emmett
Till faced during his short time in Mississippi is a task not taken lightly by the Emmett Till
Interpretive Center (ETIC). After the memorial sign located outside of what is left of the Bryant’s
Grocery & Meat Market was hit by a vehicle and removed, the ETIC stated that their message
was that “despite the opposition, our community has repeatedly come together to honor
Emmett’s life, and we will do that again,” and that no instance of vandalism will keep them from
sharing Emmett’s story.91
91 This sign is a part of the Mississippi Freedom Trail. For more information on the Trail and other signs along the
trail, see https://www.mississippitourguide.com/freedom-trail/. Quote from:
https://twitter.com/EmmeTillcenter/status/1433562557713825795.

52
Figure 3.10: Front of sign in front of Bryant's Grocery site. Source: Mississippi Historical Markers,
https://www.mississippimarkers.com/civil-rights.html.
Figure 4: Back of sign in front of Bryant's Grocery site. Source: Mississippi Historical Markers,
https://www.mississippimarkers.com/civil-rights.html.
EMIC co-founder and executive director, Patrick Weems, states that Till memorials have been
shot, thrown into the Tallahatchie River, damaged with acid, and have had KKK sprayed on
them, and he thinks, “…we just have to be resilient and know there are folks out there that don't
want to know this history or who want to erase the history. We are just going to be resilient in
continuing to put them back up and be truthful in making sure that Emmett didn't die in vain.”

53
(CBS News, 2019).92 The ETIC and members of Till’s family were hoping that the National Park
Service (NPS) will grant sites associated with Till’s life and legacy some form of legal
designation to be able to properly criminalize those vandalizing these signs and memorials. Till’s
cousin and witness to his kidnapping, Rev. Wheeler Parker, Jr., worked with the NPS to create
the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument. This national monument was
established in 2023 under the administration of President Joe Biden and is managed by the NPS.
The Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument includes three sites: one in
Chicago, Illinois, and two in Mississippi (one in Sumner and one near Glendora).93 The site in
Chicago is the Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ, where Emmett Till’s open casket funeral
was held in 1955; the church was listed on the National Trust’s “11 Most Endangered Historic
Places list in 2020”, and is also a designated Chicago Landmark.
94 In Glendora, Mississippi, near
the Tallahatchie River is Graball Landing, which is where Till’s body was retrieved from the
river; 4.3 acres of this site were donated to the NPS for this national monument. The Tallahatchie
County Second District Courthouse in Sumner, Mississippi is where the murder trial of Emmett
Till took place. Tallahatchie County donated the Courthouse and the Emmett Till Interpretive
Center that is located adjacent to the NPS through the National Park Foundation. ss
Emmett Till’s gravesite is also surrounded by spectacles, as the Burr Oak Cemetery in
Alsip, Illinois has had its share of trials and tribulations. Till was buried in Burr Oak Cemetery
on September 6, 1955, the same day that Milam and Bryant were charged with his murder
(Martin, 2021). Till-Mobley, Emmett’s mother was not happy with the location of her son’s
92 CBS News. “Bulletproof Emmett Till Marker Dedicated Saturday Replaces Vandalized Sign.” CBS News,
October 19, 2019. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/emmett-till-death-bulletproof-marker-dedicated-saturdayreplaces-repeatedly-vandalized-sign-2019-10-19/. 93 For more information on the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument, see
https://www.nationalparks.org/explore/parks/emmett-mamie-till-mobley-national-monument. 94 To view the landmark designation report for Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ, see
https://www.chicago.gov/dam/city/depts/zlup/Historic_Preservation/Publications/Roberts_Temple.pdf.

54
gravesite, as it often flooded in the rain, the headstone would get broken by lawn crews, the
picture and flower holder were damaged, and there was a general lack of upkeep by cemetery
staff. In 2001, the cemetery came under new management, and manager Carolyn Towns
promised to construct the “Emmett Till Memorial Museum” to honor Till and provide final
resting places for him, his mother, and her husband; this was never built. After Till’s body was
exhumed for an FBI investigation in 2005, he was reburied in his original grave since the
museum was not built. In 2011, Carolyn Towns pled guilty to stealing hundreds of thousands of
dollars from the cemetery, dismembering remains, and reselling plots; she pled guilty to several
of these crimes two years later.95 While she did not disturb Till’s grave in her crimes, she did not
hold to her promise and yet again left this family disappointed. Over a decade after this scandal,
Burr Oak Cemetery has yet to see any improvements, and Till’s grave still gets submerged when
it rains. A group of community members known as the Friends of Burr Oak Cemetery are
pushing for National Historic Landmark status for this cemetery that lays Till and many other
notable individuals. The group is hoping that once designated, the cemetery will receive the
proper maintenance and upkeep that those resting there deserve.
96
Part Four: Teaching Preservation Through Till’s Legacy
Though memorial signage is wonderful and informative, it is just the first step in
honoring and commemorating Emmett Till’s life, and we could be doing him and his mother,
Mamie Till-Mobley, a disservice by not continuing the civil rights conversations through Till’s
legacy. Developing spaces that can be used to positively stimulate their communities and teach
about the importance of the civil rights leaders and figures of our past, and how they relate to the
95 See https://tillapp.emmett-till.org/items/show/21.
96 For more information on the conditions at Burr Oak Cemetery and Friends of Burr Oak Cemetery, see
https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/2023/7/9/23788901/activists-landmark-status-burr-oak-cemetery-emmett-till.

55
present, is a better use of our heritage conservation tactics and policies than putting up signs and
not actually teaching these histories. For instance, when visiting Seneca Village in New York’s
Central Park, I stopped to read the informative signs detailing this once lost and still buried piece
of history – and I was the only one doing so. If these signs are not being read, engaged with, or
even taken seriously, then they are not having any impact, and might as well not be there. There
is a level of violence that can be seen in this ignorance of histories that are seemingly right in
front of us. Without having a solid way of asserting these histories back into the public eye, we
are endangering them once again. Implementing teachings and intellectual aspects into our
preservation practices will more adequately facilitate conversations surrounding important
people in history, as well as the spaces and sites associated with them. As mentioned previously,
the Emmett Till Memorial Commission is responsible for some of the signage telling the history
of Till’s murder. If they also partnered with local schools or community centers to teach about
Till and his mother’s legacy, I believe that the next generations understanding of the importance
of this piece of history would be different, and could lead to severe, positive changes surrounding
his legacy and the sites associated with it.
The two-flat home in Chicago that Alma Spearman, Till-Mobley’s mother, purchased in
1951, where Till, his mother, and her then-husband Pink Bradley lived, is currently getting a new
life that will be used to memorialize Till and serve the surrounding community. The home has
had a few different owners who were unaware of the home's history until 2017, when
Preservation Chicago advocated for the home to be given Chicago landmark status; local
landmark status was achieved in 2021.97 The home was purchased by Blacks in Green, an
97 To view the landmark designation report for the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley House, see
https://www.chicago.gov/content/dam/city/depts/zlup/Historic_Preservation/Publications/Emmett_Till_and_Mamie_
Till-Mobley_House_report.pdf.

56
environmental and community revitalization nonprofit organization in 2020.98 Blacks in Green
received a $150,000 grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation as part of their
African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund, and is planning to use the funding to open up
the home as “an international heritage pilgrimage destination” in 2025.99
Mamie Till-Mobley also does not get nearly enough recognition for her bravery and
commitment to speaking up for her son. As soon as she heard of her son’s kidnapping, TillMobley and other members of her family gathered at her mother’s home and started flooding
newspapers with calls, trying to put the spotlight on her son. The next day, reporters, the
NAACP, the mayor of Chicago, the governor of Illinois, and many others with power in the city,
were involved with Till’s disappearance.
100 After hearing of Emmett’s murder, it was imperative
for Till-Mobley to get her son back home so she could give him a proper send-off and burial. She
spent nearly a year’s salary to transport her son’s body from Mississippi to Chicago. Getting to
see her son’s body was also a fight, as undertakers from Mississippi and Chicago, as well as
members of her family, were made to sign documents promising not to unlock the box Till was
sealed in. When she finally was able to see her son, the level of disfiguration made Till almost
unrecognizable, only being able to be identified by the ring on his finger. After seeing what had
been done to her son, Till-Mobley knew she had to have an open casket funeral to show the
world the brutality that had been committed against her son. Emmett Till’s legacy is widely
remembered due to this unimaginably difficult and brave decision made by his mother. Mamie
Till-Mobley committed the rest of her life to speaking up for her son, telling his story any chance
98 For more information on Blacks in Green, see https://www.blacksingreen.org/till-house. 99 More on the grant from NPS can be seen here: https://www.preservationchicago.org/. Details regarding the
African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund can be seen in Chapter Four of this thesis. 100 Vanessa Pius. “12 Things You Might Not Know About Mamie Till-Mobley.” National Parks Conservation
Association, November 23, 2021. https://www.npca.org/articles/3036-12-things-you-might-not-know-about-mamietill-mobley.

57
she got, even if that meant putting her own grief aside to do so. She knew the importance of
educating others and sharing the stories of the experiences and sacrifices made by those who we
owe our freedoms to. In her memoir Death of Innocence: The Story of the Hate Crime That
Changed America, Till-Mobley writes, “Although I have lived so much of my life without
Emmett, I have lived my entire life because of him” (2003).101 Mamie Till-Mobley took on her
son’s voice after he was killed; so, who takes on Mamie’s voice now that she is also gone? We
must use our collective resources to honor both Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley, and ensure
that their lives and legacy are properly, as well as respectfully, commemorated.
101 This memoir was written with the help of Christopher Benson and was published posthumously in 2003.

58
CHAPTER 4: ANALYSIS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
As previously stated, the practice of heritage conservation in the United States is not
properly utilizing its tools and resources to ensure the protection and longevity of Black
American or African American heritage sites and landscapes. The world is rapidly becoming a
place where heritage is being lost, whether it be from climate change and natural disasters,
intentional removal and/or destruction, or housing needs and gentrification. Whatever the reason,
our heritage and histories are slipping away, and soon we may not have many physical spaces
representing our pasts. The vulnerability of these places is something not to take lightly or
ignore; we must use all our efforts to save these histories. Community and grassroots efforts
supplemented with conservation, urban planning, and other legislative efforts is, in my opinion,
how we can get closer to discovering the best ways to protect vulnerable Black heritage sites
without putting them in danger of being damaged or destroyed.
Part One: Current Sociopolitical Climate
It is incredibly evident that the impacts of the Civil Rights Movement are everlasting and
an integral part of United States history. The influence that events like the Voting Right March
and the subsequent Voting Rights Act, as well as the murder of Emmett Till, have had on the
livelihoods of Black/African Americans decades later is proof of the significance of the
Movement, and its overarching mark left on the nation. While the events and challenges that
were faced by individuals during the time of the Movement (1954-1968) have had lasting effects
on this country and its inhabitants, it seems as though some of these feats were almost done in
vain, as issues that were beginning to alleviate during and after the Movement are still as
relevant today as they were then. For instance, The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was landmark

59
legislation that illegalized racial discrimination in the voting process and helped secure voting
rights and political opportunities for Black and Brown U.S. citizens; these voting rights were not
as secured as advertised, though. Having rights guaranteed, but then perpetually weakened to the
point of ineffectuality, is not something any person should have to worry about. Any governing
entity should be using their authority to empower and protect those who they are committed to
serve, not use their power to take advantage of those with less institutional authority. In 1970,
President Richard Nixon granted Southern states federal approval to make changes to their
voting laws; due to many Southern states having had a long history of voter discrimination,
Section 5 of the Act requires these states to seek approval from the U.S. Department of Justice
before any changes can go into effect.102 Over forty years later, this voter discrimination and
suppression is continuing, with the Supreme Court case Shelby vs Holder (2013) leading to the
removal of a key aspect of the Voting Rights Act, deeming Section 4(b) of the Act, the portion
that determines which jurisdictions are covered in Section 5, unconstitutional (Brennan Center,
2018). In 2019, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Voting Rights Advancement Act,
adding some clarity to the adjustments to the bill that were made in 2013, and including new
criteria for which states and political subdivisions need to receive preclearance before voting
practices can take effect in these areas.103 The outcome of 2021 Supreme Court case Brnovich vs
Democratic National Committee made it more difficult to use Section 2 of the Act, the section
that prohibits discrimination based on race, color, or one’s membership in one of the language
minority groups (Brennan Center, 2022). Also in 2021, the Supreme Court heard the case of
102 See https://www.civiced.org/voting-lessons/voting-timeline. 103 This bill was updated again in 2021, and renamed the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2021.
See https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/4.

60
Allen vs Milligan (formerly known as Merrill vs Milligan), which also undermined the integrity
of Section 2 by maintaining Alabama’s discriminatory congressional map.
During the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections, documented instances of voter
suppression took place in several different ways, including the invalidating voting by mail,
cutting back early voting opportunities, discouraging voters from staying in long lines, voter
intimidation, etc.; all these tools are used to prevent voters, largely Black and Brown voters,
from having their votes counted and their voices heard. In 2014, a study was conducted by the
U.S. Government Accountability Office, finding that there was a decline in voter participation
for recent elections due to the stricter photo ID laws that were passed in years prior.104 Likewise,
the election of 2020 had its fair share of voter suppression because of the restrictive voting laws
being passed, but also due, in part, to the (at the time) current President and candidate Trump
insisting on the election being rigged and encouraging his supporters to take investigative
matters into their own hands (Baker, 2020). Creating the narrative that voting by mail is unsafe
and an illegitimate form of casting your vote scared many people into only voting in-person; for
those who were not able to vote in-person, their votes simply were not cast, and their voices were
not heard. Based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau, over 70% of eligible white voters
participated in the election, while only about 58% of eligible non-white voters cast their votes.105
While some may just choose not to participate, there were also many challenges for those who
wanted to vote. Also, we must consider why some might not have wanted to vote: some feel as
though the selected candidates tend to not care about addressing their needs whether that be
related to housing, food insecurity, education, race, etc., and see no need to support them
104 See https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-14-634.pdf.
105 For past Voting and Registration Tables, see https://www.census.gov/topics/public-sector/voting/data/tables.html.

61
politically. Others do not believe in the political system as it has historically not been supportive
or accessible to all, and think voting is a waste of time, as their voice does not matter. Voter
suppression and intimidation tactics can be daunting for some, especially as our society slowly
reverts to ways of the past, almost mimicking some of those same struggles faced by those in the
1950s.
Since the sociopolitical climate of the world has become increasingly more conservative,
sites of underrepresented and vulnerable heritage are now, more than ever, in need of meaningful
protection and conservation efforts.106 Instances of society’s regression can be seen in actions
like curriculum censorship and book bans taking place in many school districts in the United
States, the increase of right-wing and white supremist hate groups/movements that target
marginalized communities by claiming that “diversity destroys nations,” and the ongoing ethnic
cleansing and cultural terrorism taking place against Palestinians, their land, and cultural heritage
sites that is rapidly intensifying, are clear signs of cultural genocide happening right before our
eyes, with little to no international intervention107. The growing individualistic and egocentric
mentality in our present climate is leading people to lose sight of the bigger picture—their
community, culture, and history. As scholar Richard Weissbourd and Sen. Chris Murphy state,
“…our country’s survival may rest on our ability to restore the prior balance between
individualism and the common good. As a social scientist who has long studied
Americans’ retreat into ourselves and as a U.S. Senator raising children amidst this new
national reality, we believe the question of how we restore in Americans a stronger sense
106 The use of the word ‘conservative’ refers to the practice of conservatism in the context of cultural, social, and
political values. For a more in-depth on conservatism, see https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/conservatism/. 107 For curriculum censorship and book bans, see https://www.americanprogress.org/article/book-banningcurriculum-restrictions-and-the-politicization-of-u-s-schools/. For hate groups, see
https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/white-supremacist-propaganda-produced-u-s-hate-groups-spreadingworking-ncna1140726. For the genocide taking place in Palestine, see https://www.aljazeera.com/tag/israelpalestine-conflict/.

62
of responsibility for others and their communities is one of the central cultural and civic
concerns of the moment” (2023).108 If we forget that our collective humanity and liberation are
reliant on the foundations set by those before us (i.e. our histories), then we will lose our cultures
and the essence of who we are. Losing both tangible and intangible aspects of our history could
potentially lead to the eradication of entire communities or cultures. Without proper memorials
and monuments, or education and literature, we are going to literally forget about our past. These
reasons are why the work that Patrick Weems, The Emmett Till Interpretive Center, and Till’s
family are doing to ensure the replacement and conservation of signs memorializing Till’s story
and legacy is so imperative. If information regarding the Civil Rights Movement, and other
hardships and atrocities that African Americans and other Black individuals faced in this country,
is not going to be properly taught in schools and books detailing this information will no longer
be available either, then how will the masses learn about Till? Though there is no physical
building at the site on the Tallahatchie River where Till’s body was found, the sign
commemorating Till and his life can still at least give those who visit the site a lesson on what
occurred there. Having organizations like Blacks in Green who are planning to open Mamie TillMobley’s family home as a community space is, in my opinion, what will be some of the most
impactful work. Creating spaces locally for members of a community to come together and
continue to make history by learning about theirs is an invaluable piece of the ever-complex
puzzle of restorative justice and preservation. Proper community engagement and inclusion are
the key to saving any site or building.
108 To view the full article, see https://time.com/6269091/individualism-ahead-of-the-common-good-for-too-long/.

63
Part Two: An Awakening in Preservation
To start, I do not have all the answers when it comes to preserving vulnerable heritage
sites, or Black cultural heritage sites; all I have is my knowledge of preservation tactics and
policies, and my lifetime experience as a Black person. There is a way that Black individuals
communicate, interact with one another, and simply exist in this world; now that is not to say that
there is one way to “be Black”, or that we have one collective experience. Based on cultural
history and trends, it can be predicted how we, or most ethnic/racial groups, might react or
behave in certain situations. Tangible examples of this can be seen in the aftermath of the
murders of Trayvon Martin, Sandra Bland, Breonna Taylor, and so many other Black individuals
who were slain due to intense racism and police violence. In 2020, George Floyd, a forty-sixyear-old Black man, was murdered by (now former) Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin.
Floyd was accused of and arrested for potentially using a counterfeit $20 bill at a local grocery
store. Floyd died from asphyxia and cardiopulmonary arrest after Chauvin pressed his knee into
Floyd’s neck for over nine minutes. The aftermath of Floyd’s murder had a major impact on the
world, spurring vigils, memorials, and protests all over the world.
Figure 4.1: George Floyd mural in Minneapolis, Minnesota, 2020. Source: Vasanth Rajkumar, https://commons.wikimedia.org/.

64
Figure 4.2: George Floyd mural in Idlib, Syria. Source: Izzeddin Idilbi for Anadolu Agency/Getty Images,
https://time.com/6180773/george-floyd-murals/.
The brute nature of Floyd’s murder, coupled with the instantaneous response made possible
through social media, as well as the racial violence that has always haunted the U.S., was a
wakeup call for many, including those in the preservation world. In 2021, the National Trust for
Historic Preservation initiated their national agenda, Leading the Change Together, which is a
draft framework intended to address the concerns regarding preservation, and the calls for
changes within the field.109
109 See https://savingplaces.org/stories/leading-the-change-together-national-impact-agenda.

65
Figure 4.3: “Greg Bajema views the memorial of stuffed animals, flowers, tee-shirts and ball caps that remains on Nov. 5th, 2014
in Ferguson, Mo.” Source: MSNBC https://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/michael-brown-memorial-ferguson-rebuilt-msna493591.
Having a memorial like the one for Michael Brown that got intentionally destroyed, similar to
those related to Emmett Till, being replaced by caring individuals in the neighborhood, and
standing their ground in the face of adversity, is essentially what building and maintaining
community is all about.110 By not only involving but centering the communities or individuals
that are directly affected by the history of the site, or are in close relation to the site, we can get a
better understanding of the sites in their context in ways that might not be available or known to
those who do not have that strong connection. Without holding the desires, needs, and concerns
of a community at the center of any project or effort that will affect them, then you are doing
them a major disservice that could possibly even cause them harm. As preservationists, we
should focus on strategizing ways to first connect with the communities that we are wanting to
serve first, meeting them where they are and supporting their initial concerns surrounding our
projects in order to avoid any brutality, then develop/strengthen community-based activities and
110 In 2014, eighteen-year-old Black teenager Michael Brown was murdered by white police officer Darren Wilson
in Ferguson, Missouri.

66
efforts, such as community centers that supply basic needs, services, and resources to members,
and lastly focus on the work we are wanting to get done. A building cannot truly be saved
without intimate knowledge of its history and inhabitants, and a site cannot truly be saved
without getting to know those who used it and passed through it. Building trust within a
community and making your intentions known should be the first step in any preservation project
if its end goal is success.
According to Phillip Howard, there are people who live in the same neighborhoods as the
Voting Rights March campsites and don’t know that they exist.111 So, if these campsites are more
widely known, will they be put in danger? According to Davine Hall and Cheryl Gardner Davis,
security for the campsites is a shared concern. Whether that be due to the current status/stability
of the buildings on site, the number of visitors who stop by, or simply not knowing what visitors’
intentions might be, neither the Hall nor Gardner family is quite ready to open their sites for any
official visitations. I had the opportunity to speak with Davine Hall, the granddaughter of David
Hall, and she mentioned that her family has no intention of turning their land and family home
into a community center or education center, and the family would much rather preserve and
maintain the land to its 1965 identity.112 On the other hand, Cheryl Gardner Davis says that her
family would like to eventually be able to host those who are wanting to camp on the site; she
prefers “…being able to use the site as an educational tool that will be used to inform youth
about voting rights, the March and its importance, as well as the importance of the campsite, as it
is a Black-owned farming property that has been in the family for generations.”113 Putting
emphasis on the risks that Black landowners took to assist in the March is key to understanding
111Information gathered from conversation with Phillip Howard on Sept. 28, 2023. 112Information gathered from conversation with Davine Hall on Nov. 13, 2023. 113 Ibid.

67
their significance; as mentioned in Chapter 2, aftermath of the March included verbal and
physical threats from neighbors, having police officers and others with firearms monitoring their
movements, lines of credit being drawn up in the campsite owners’ names, banks not loaning to
them, etc. Each campsite owner was aware of what might come if they were to participate in the
March but did it anyways because they believed in the Movement, and in collective power.
Gardner Davis’s son, BJ Davis, would like to teach young people about the importance of
farming and being able to sustain yourself and your community in that aspect. Davis is currently
living in a house on the property (not David Gardner’s home) and is responsible for the daily
farming and cattle maintenance of the land. In the documentary 54 Miles to Home (2021), Davis
says that because of the history that his grandfather's farm has, it is important to keep the
tradition of farming the land going and to encourage more Black people to learn the practice of
farming. A practice like landscape architecture could also be used to bridge the gap between
heritage conservation and farming, that way, the conservation of both land and built heritage can
be addressed. Being able to incorporate the desires of the owners and needs for each site, while
also being able to present them to their communities and visitors in a way that will keep them
protected, is going to be a challenge.
The practice of heritage conservation (or historic preservation) exists for the purpose of
protecting sites or places that are deemed to have important meanings throughout history. Since
we are supposed to be using these processes and strategies to protect important historical places,
then not using them for this purpose is going against the very nature of the field. Whether it be
National Register designations, local designations, National Historic Trails, etc., if the
“protected” site is not actually being protected, then what is the purpose of any of these
processes? Imagining what these sites could be and how they can impact their communities

68
might mean that we do not center or include these processes at all. Initially, my thoughts were to
restore each home to look the way it did in 1965, and to incorporate a community center or
education center within each home. After speaking with Cheryl Gardner Davis, and putting some
more thought into that idea, I have realized that that is not the answer to this problem. Not only is
that not what all the families want, but it still does not address the problem of protecting the sites.
Unlike the memorial sign commemorating Emmett Till, these homes are not made of steel and
cannot be protected with bulletproof glass. Also, the community center being hosted in Emmett
and Mamie Till-Mobley’s home will not in any way keep it from being vandalized, nor would
this being there keep the sign at Graball Landing from being destroyed again. Finding the
balance between protection and visibility is going to be very tricky, but for the sake of saving
these important historical sites, it is a must. The past conservation efforts that have been done in
relation to the 1965 Voting Rights March and Emmett Till’s murder in 1955 have not been, in my
opinion, substantial in the protection or advocacy of these pieces of history, as the campsites are
physically falling apart, and the signs seem to only be protected if they are over 500 pounds and
bulletproofed. Preservation policy needs to be adapted to be more encompassing of all aspects of
history, or we will have to rethink preservation policy altogether. The way the field has
historically operated clearly does not work for all parts of history, hence the adaptation of
organizations and legislation like SAFE, NAGPRA, ICSC, etc., and leads me to believe that
specific organizations and legislation for preserving Black history in the United States could be a
viable solution. Organizations like the National Association for the Preservation of African
American History and Culture, Inc. (NAPAAHC) who work to preserve endangered African
American historic sites by spreading awareness and educating their communities, and the African
American Heritage Preservation Foundation, Inc. (AAHPF), who act as a resource center for

69
those needing assistance in preserving African American heritage sites, could be a possibility in
solving the disparity in the preservation field. As a result of a violent white supremacist rally that
took place in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017, the National Trust for Historic Preservation
created the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund that is dedicated to the conservation
of sites that represent “African American activism, achievement, and resilience” (National
Trust, 2024). According to the National Trust’s Brent Leggs, Jenna Dublin, and Michael
Powe, “By protecting and preserving more stories of Black contributions to our nation, we hope
to foster truth, healing, and reconciliation. Just as important, we want to inspire a new generation
of diverse activists to take up the standard and recognize preservation as a tool for social justice
in their own communities” (2020). Though the Action Fund was created in 2017, its
momentum and dedication has not stopped, and neither have the funding as it has received
a $5 million grant from the Mellon Foundation in 2019, $7.5 million in 2022, and the
latest grant for $3.5 million in June 2023.
114 The Action Fund also received a $20 million
grant in 2021 from philanthropist MacKenzie Scott. This donation was very
transformative, widely increasing both the quality and quantity of conservation work that
could be done. Having the additional funding allows for the Action Fund to continue its
momentum in preserving important Black and African American heritage in the U.S. Since
the murder of George Floyd, the field of heritage conservation has undergone a vast
number of progressive actions, including the removal of confederate monuments, increase
in funding for the conservation of Black and African American cultural sites (i.e., the
114 See https://savingplaces.org/press-center/media-resources/aachaf-38m-in-2023-grants.

70
Action Fund), the inclusion and focus shifting toward grassroots and local preservation
organizations, etc.115
As mentioned previously, having Black voices be included in the preservation processes
that happen around Black heritage sites can better ensure that the stories are being told properly
and fully, which in turn could make them less vulnerable to damage or erasure. For instance, I
am currently working on a project at the Getty Conservation Institute and Los Angeles City
Planning, Office of Historic Resources that is centering Black heritage and historic places in Los
Angeles. The project, African American Historic Places, Los Angeles (AAHPLA), will provide
“the opportunity to rethink historic preservation policies and processes to better support social
justice and equity goals,” while also reworking the African American History of Los Angeles
Context Statement.116 The five sites and five communities that our team has selected to work
with on were decided through extensive research, and by consulting with our Local Advisory
Committee, made up of members of various communities that have all different specializations
and areas of expertise to assist us in our continued work. The project team will work with each
individual site to create customized preservation strategies and plans that use the preservation
policies/tools that benefit them specifically. We also have a shadowing component within our
project that allows members from the community who have an interest in conservation but might
not have formal training to gain hands-on working experience in the field. While everyone
involved with the project is not Black, we are communicating heavily with the Black
communities that we are working in, and making sure that the voices of community members are
at the forefront of our work. Our work will not be effective if we do not include the members of
115 For more on the connection between Heritage Conservation and George Floyd, see
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r47PW__wWqU. 116 For more about the AAHPLA project, see https://www.getty.edu/projects/african-american-historic-places-losangeles/.

71
the communities that we are trying to recognize and protect. We are also looking at more than
just one community, as well as more than just one type of site and history, to get a more
comprehensive story of Black history in Los Angeles. Diversification in our research and in our
preservation practice will not only lead to a more thorough narrative but will also create a diverse
number of Black heritage sites that can have their stories be told on a larger scale. The work that
we are doing at the Getty can, and hopefully will, set a precedent for future conservation work
surrounding Black heritage in the United States. Through meaningful community engagement
and consultation, and preservation processes infused with social justice and an equitable
framework, the AAHPLA project can help to set the standard for preservation projects and
initiatives surrounding Black communities not just in Los Angeles, but in cities and communities
all over the country.
Part Three: Recommendations
The field of preservation is slowly leaning towards being more encompassing and
implementing stronger community engagement strategies within the policies and processes, but
since preservation scholars and experts are not necessarily community engagement specialists,
the strategies might not be as strong as they could be. In this case, it would be beneficial for
preservationists to consult and work in tandem with “non-experts,” or those with other areas of
expertise, or without preservation training. In a lecture at the University of Virginia’s (UVA)
School of Architecture, Professor Jessica Sewell introduces Dr. Andrea Roberts, a scholar who
specializes in intersectional preservation, history, and urban planning; Sewell prefaces by stating
that Dr. Roberts encourages us to “embrace the non-experts [and] don't just listen to the people
who are traditionally preservationists and planners. We need to expand our definition in
preservation and architecture, etc. Experts are not just based on credentials”, and mentioned the

72
importance of paying close attention to and thoroughly listening to the people who are most
directly affected by the work we will be conducting (Roberts, 2019). She also emphasized the
importance of listening to women of color and those of intersectional experiences, and realizing
that there can be, and usually is, more than one system working against those in marginalized
communities.
Figure 4.4: Slide of questions from presentation by Dr. Andrea Roberts, 2019. Source: YouTube,
https://youtu.be/TRFmB9djwf0?si=DuOGBzirpOAFrEed.
Dr. Roberts also posed some questions to her audience (pictured above) that I thought were very
interesting and wanted to discuss as I analyze potential improvements to preservation practices.
The first question, “How do practitioners and educators re-envision planning and preservation as
freedom seeking?,” could be addressed by using community engagement and collaboration
techniques that will not only inform the community about what is going on around them, but will
empower them to mobilize or act where they see appropriate. Dr. Roberts is currently doing this
with The Texas Freedom Colonies Project, which she started in 2014 as a tool to mentor and train
preservationists, scholars, planners, etc. on ways in which they can address structural challenges
that are faced within their work, i.e. racial and environmental injustice, invisibility, vulnerability,

73
and so on.117 The Freedom Colonies in Texas are places with such rich and significant Black
cultural history that is necessary in the storytelling of Black settlement history in the U.S. and are
at risk of decay and erasure due to being underrepresented and accounted for by policymakers
and preservationists. The work being done by The Texas Freedom Colonies Project team, and the
descendants of these communities, sets an example of what is possible when dedicated
individuals use their resources, knowledge, and experience to work towards the conservation and
planning of Black heritage sites. Next, “How do we continue to center the analog (and not just
the digital), even when it required confrontation and discomfort?,” is a bit of a tricky one.
Thinking of restorative justice in preservation, after George Floyd’s murder in 2020, many
monuments that represented Confederacy and its leaders were starting to be taken down and
removed, resulting in backlash from Confederacy supporters and sympathizers. Though the
monuments were being removed due to the outdated and offensive ideas they represented, many
were still upset about their removal. In the book Smashing Statues: The Rise and Fall of
America’s Public Monuments by Erin L. Thompson, the author starts this conversation of how to
address opposition of monuments and historic sites, and leaves room for further discussion and
analysis of what can be done in these situations (2022). The last question Dr. Roberts posed,
“How can we detect, yet not exploit the null, the fugitive, and the resistant in our landscapes,
classrooms, and leadership circles?” involves cultivating awareness, effective communication,
and most importantly, having empathy and trust amongst all involved parties. Building and
maintaining trust can be done by having open and frequent communication regarding the
proposed work and the intention behind it, as well as the community being honest with their
input and feedback. The attention and awareness that is being drawn towards a project or subject
117 For more on the Texas Freedom Colonies project, see https://www.thetexasfreedomcoloniesproject.com/aboutthe-founder.

74
needs to be done altruistically, keeping the best intentions for the community in mind, while also
realizing that there may be some pushback that needs to be addressed with diligence and finesse.
Analysis of efforts related to the Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail
Regarding the campsites along the Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail, being
designated as a National Historic Trail has not done much toward any type of preservation. The
National Park Service, the U.S. Department of Transportation, and the Alabama Department of
Transportation (ALDOT) are responsible for protecting and interpreting the route, but the
concern seems to be on the Highway 80 route itself and the interpretive centers in Selma, White
Hall, and Montgomery, rather than the actual campsites.118 The privately owned campsites
(Campsites One, Two, and Three) were added to the Alabama Register of Landmarks and
Heritage in 2021, but no substantial preservation action has happened yet. The homes are still
falling into disrepair, and the current designations are not addressing that at all. Between the
AAHPF, funding from ALDOT, NPS, and the property owners receiving federal or state historic
tax credits, the sites would be able to have some type of tangible conservation to the buildings
that are still standing. Community crowdfunding and donations from grassroots organizations
could also be a potential source of funding; it would be beneficial to include current minoritized
communities and social justice organizations in the fight for preservation. Another vantage point
that could be used to raise concern for the condition of these resources is the timely topic of
voting rights, as issues with current voter suppression have come to light, especially in states that
are conservative leaning, like Alabama and Mississippi. If groups and organizations who are
currently fighting for this issue start also fighting to protect these pieces of history that directly
correlate to their cause, then it can help to bring to light the systemic issues within this country
118 See https://www.nps.gov/semo/learn/index.htm.

75
that a large portion of the country’s population is facing. Showing how erasing this history only
causes us to repeat it, could be a key tactic in the fight for preservation. The Alabama Historic
Rehabilitation Tax Credit offers a 25% tax refund to those who privately own homes or
commercial properties that are at least 60 years old, and are either already listed, or eligible for
listing, on the National Register of Historic Places.119 If the owners/families of these campsites
were able to gain more support and get started with the physical conservation of the properties,
they could possibly receive this tax credit and take their conservation efforts to a higher level.
Analysis of efforts related to the Emmett Till Memorial Signs
For Emmett Till’s legacy, the Tallahatchie County Second District Courthouse was added
to the Mississippi Landmarks list in 1990, but only for its architecture. It was added to the
National Register of Historic Places in 2007 for its relation to the Till case, but as previously
mentioned, this was after correcting a botched renovation, and returning it to its likeness as it
was in 1955. Both the local and national designations of this site allow it to be protected from
vandalism and tampering, unlike the Graball Landing sign that is unprotected legislatively. The
Graball Landing sign, as well as other signs commemorating Till’s life and death have no written
protection in place for and are vulnerable to damage or vandalization. Unlike the campsites in
Alabama, lack of attention is not necessarily the issue here, but finding a solution to protect the
signs from vandalization is the issue; and bulletproofing and weighing down every sign isn’t a
quality solution either, as this cost the ETMC more than $10,000 for one sign alone.
120 To
bulletproof every sign related to Till, that would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, and who
would be responsible for funding this—the ETMC, the National Trust, the NPS? Also, having the
119 For more on the Alabama Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credit, see
https://ahc.alabama.gov/alabamarehabtaxcredits.aspx. 120 See https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/20/us/emmett-till-memorial-bulletproof-trnd/index.html.

76
signs needing to be protected in an almost militaristic fashion is very disheartening to think
about, and dystopian to look at. It does not seem as though there are other historical markers that
need to be bulletproofed for their protection, so why is it that Till’s needs to be? The signs
already in place are locally donated by organizations like the Emmett Till Interpretive Center, but
no formal historic markers or plaques have been placed by the State of Mississippi or the
National Park Service. I’m not sure whether some formal designation would help to mitigate this
violence, but if the sign even had some sort of legal protection that would discipline those who
aim to vandalize the sign, that might be a step in the right direction. The Emmett and Mamie TillMobley National Monument, like the Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail, is just a
title, and has yet to serve any actual conservation purpose to any of the sites included in the
designation. The Tallahatchie County Second District Courthouse is already listed in the National
Register of Historic Places and not in any (documented) immediate danger. The Roberts Temple
Church of God in Christ did not have any preservation protection but was also not in any
(documented) immediate danger. While I am enthused of the existence of the Emmett and Mamie
Till-Mobley National Monument, I believe it took entirely too long for them to get this honor.
Also, it is not protecting the signs related to Till’s legacy, or addressing how bizarre of a
conservation tactic bulletproofing a sign is. It is absolutely ridiculous that that is what had to be
done to the sign to protect it. Alternative approaches to preserve Till’s legacy, and other Black
heritage sites can be, in my opinion, what ends up truly saving these pieces of history from being
lost.
As mentioned in Chapters 2 and 3, there are several community-based approaches that
could aid in bringing awareness to the sites and places mentioned in this thesis. I truly believe
that if we want to facilitate substantial change, and create a grander platform for preservation and

77
conservation, it must be done not only by professionals in the field, but by non-professionals in
the communities we are intending to serve. It is highly recommended that preservation
professionals take a step back and realize that our wants and needs come second to those of the
people who are most affected by our work. There are people, stories, and legacies behind each
historic site, and that is where the focus should lie, not just on the physical space. When
decentering expertise and academia, it will be realized that the best preservationists and
storytellers are those who pass down family traditions, continue to practice and celebrate their
culture, collect old photographs, etc. All the knowledge and accolades in the world cannot make
up for or take place of having genuine care and positive intentions for the work you are doing,
and this can only be done by not having preservation professionals be the ones with the most
power in these situations.

78
CONCLUSION
It is imperative to know the entire story of any history we tell, and to include every
individual and community that is part of the story. Regarding the Voting Rights March, the city
of Marion, Alabama has routinely been forgotten when remembering and discussing the March.
Considering that the idea of the march was sparked in response to the murder of Marion resident
Jimmie Lee Jackson, and it was at his funeral service in Marion that Rev. James Bevel had the
idea to march to the Alabama State Capitol, it is very irresponsible storytelling to leave this
community out of the narrative. In 2002, a monument commemorating the Civil Rights
Movement was placed in front of Zion Methodist Church, where Jimmie Lee Jackson was
murdered, as was signage surrounding the church of Jackson’s place within the Movement. There
are also plans of turning the county jail where Rev. James Orange was held into a museum, as
well as creating signage commemorating his contributions to Black voter’s rights.
121 The town of
White Hall is also not as known as widely for its inclusion in the March, even though Campsite
Two, the property of Rosie Steele, is located within that town. I presume that the lack of
knowledge of White Hall’s connection to the March is due to the lack of a physical site
remaining. The town of White Hall has “where Selma meets Montgomery” on their Facebook
page, but White Hall seemingly does not have a place within the storytelling of the Selma to
Montgomery March.122 In conversation with Phillip Howard, he mentioned that there is currently
a “Visioning Document” being created regarding the March that will be looking at the
communities along the Trail (Marion, Selma, White Hall, and Montgomery) as one regional
121 See https://apnews.com/article/us-news-ap-top-news-voting-selma-voting-rights35e9b7e91a9c8b87b351c34d65e45d2f. 122 See https://www.facebook.com/whitehalltownhall/.

79
piece, rather than as individuals; Howard also mentioned that this document is the first of its kind
for the March and Campsites.123
In regard to Emmett Till and his legacy, the town of Mound Bayou, Mississippi is not
usually told when discussing Till’s impact on history. Mound Bayou is a small town located
within the Mississippi Delta that was founded by Isaiah T. Montgomery, Joshua P.T.
Montgomery, and Benjamin T. Green, three formerly enslaved Black men, in 1887.124 All three
men at one point or another were enslaved on the Davis Bend Plantation in Warren County,
Mississippi.125 The town was designed and intended to be a self-reliant, all-Black community,
that would serve as a place of empowerment and safety for its residents; according to the U.S.
Census from 2020, over 97% of the population in Mound Bayou is Black or African American,
meaning that it has been a predominantly Black community for over a century.126 Since Mound
Bayou was known as a safe haven for Black people in the area, Mamie Till-Mobley, members of
the NAACP, and the Black journalists covering the trial all traveled over thirty miles and across
two counties and stayed in the home of Dr. T.R.M. Howard, who provided constant security
rounds and a checkpoint before coming to his home to protect the trial attendees.127 Mound
Bayou clearly plays an essential role in the telling of Emmett Till’s story, and it is shameful that
yet another piece of this story has been hidden or forgotten.128
123 Information gathered from conversation with Phillip Howard on Sept. 28, 2023. 124 The I.T. Montgomery House was nominated for the National Register in 1975, The documentation can be seen
here: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/73890559. 125 See https://mississippiencyclopedia.org/entries/mound-bayou/. 126 For more Census data on Mound Bayou, see
https://data.census.gov/profile/Mound_Bayou_city,_Mississippi?g=160XX00US2849320#populations-and-people. 127 To view the Presidential briefing, see https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidentialactions/2023/07/25/a-proclamation-on-establishment-of-the-emmett-till-and-mamie-till-mobley-nationalmonument/. 128 More on Mound Bayou can be read here: https://www.npr.org/2017/03/08/515814287/heres-whats-become-of-ahistoric-all-black-town-in-the-mississippi-delta.

80
While this thesis in no way intends to highlight those who are aggressors of racial
violence, in my commitment to telling the full story, it is important to briefly mention the status
of Bryant’s Grocery and Meat Market. As stated above, following the acquittal of both J.W.
Milam and Roy Bryant, the Bryant store was forced to close due to locals boycotting, and the
families moved to Texas. For the next thirty or so years, the store was under two different
ownerships – first it was a country grocery store known as Wolfe’s, then it was known as
Young’s Grocery and Market.129 In the 1980s, the Tribble family purchased the site of Bryant’s
Grocery, and his children still own the site; Ray Tribble was one of the jurors who voted for the
acquittal of Milam and Bryant in 1995. The Tribble family was able to garner funds reserved for
civil rights preservation and restoration to renovate an adjacent gas station (with no known civil
rights history) in 2011, but did not make any mention of Bryant’s Grocery, Emmett Till, or the
Civil Rights Movement. As of 2019, the Tribble family has no intention of restoring, or even
selling, the site.
Figure 5.1: Photograph of Bryant Grocery and Meat Market site in 2015. Source: Pablo Correa via https://tillapp.emmetttill.org/items/show/1.
129 Date of store closure unknown.

81
Currently, the site is in ruins, and it does not seem as if there are any efforts to restore it. The sign
outside of the site details the history and importance of this site’s relation to the Civil Rights
Movement, but also calls attention to the atrocity that is a result of what happened here one night
in 1955. This is what I would consider to be a very difficult site to make a preservation-related
decision for; should we save this relic that some see as a birthplace of the Civil Rights
Movement? Or should we let it continue to decay to not give the many racists involved with its
memory any more attention? But if we let it completely decay and go to ruin, then the Tribble
family will have reason to tear down the building’s remains and be left with “potentially valuable
commercial property” they view this site as.130 Personally, my feelings of the remains of Bryant’s
Grocery are conflicted, and I predict that it will be too late before any decision for the future of
the site gets made.
Another piece of contentious history related to this thesis includes the name of Edmund
Pettus Bridge. Named after Edmund Pettus, former soldier in the Confederate Army who later
served as a grand dragon in the Ku Klux Klan, the bridge’s current name is seen as a reminder of
the hate and racism that once prevalently flowed throughout Alabama and the rest of the South,
instead of the life-changing triumph and perseverance that took place there on March 7, 1965.
There have been calls to change the name of the bridge to honor late Congressman John Lewis,
an incredibly prominent civil rights activist who almost lost his life on that bridge on Bloody
Sunday while marching for voting rights for African Americans (Rodriguez, 2020). An online
petition was created in 2020 to change the name of the bridge, and now has over five hundredthousand signatures.131
130 Ibid. 131 To view and sign the petition, see https://www.change.org/p/governor-of-alabama-rename-the-edmund-pettusbridge-after-rep-john-lewis?source_location=discover_feed.

82
Whether it be renaming or restoring places, or challenging precarious voting laws, the
conservation of tangible and intangible Black heritage needs to be taken into consideration, just
as other aspects of conservation are. Black spaces experience systemic violence in this country,
just as Black people do. Black spaces are special not in the sense that they deserve exclusive
attention, but that they need attention that is catered and appropriate to the historic and
contemporary circumstances that Black people face within the context of these spaces and be
equitable and relevant to each unique space. Preservation should be a tool used for truly
protecting spaces, and heavily relying on community input and feedback to preserve in ways that
are wanted/needed and are beneficial towards the spaces we are injecting ourselves into.

83
BIBLIOGRAPHY
“20 places that changed the world: Alabama civil rights sites”. World Monuments Fund. (n.d.).
https://www.wmf.org/slideshow/20-places-changed-world-alabama-civil-rights-sites
A&E Television Networks. (n.d.). Civil Rights Movement timeline & events. History.com.
https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/civil-rights-movement-timeline
“About Mdah.” Mississippi Department of Archives & History. Accessed January 11, 2024.
https://www.mdah.ms.gov/about-mdah.
“About MHT.” Mississippi Heritage Trust. Accessed January 11, 2024.
https://www.mississippiheritage.com/about.
ACHP. “An Introduction to Section 106.” ACHP, 2023. https://www.achp.gov/protectinghistoric-properties/section-106-process/introduction-section-106.
“African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund.” National Trust for Historic Preservation.
https://savingplaces.org/african-american-cultural-heritage.
“African American Historic Places Los Angeles.” Getty Projects, November 15, 2023.
https://www.getty.edu/projects/african-american-historic-places-los-angeles/.
AHC Home Page. Alabama Historical Commission. (n.d.-a). https://ahc.alabama.gov/
Alabama Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credit Program. Accessed January 8, 2024.
https://ahc.alabama.gov/alabamarehabtaxcredits.aspx.
Alabama Preservation Alliance. (n.d.). https://alabamapreservation.tripod.com/aboutus.html
Alabama Register of Landmarks & Heritage. Alabama Historical Commission. (n.d.-b).
https://ahc.alabama.gov/AlabamaRegisterPDFs/Alabama%20Register%20of%20Landma
rks%20&%20Heritage%20Property%20Listing%20(for%20web)%20April%202019.pdf
Alabama Trust. Alabama Trust for Historic Preservation. (2021, April 16).
https://alabamatrust.co/
“Allen v. Milligan (Formerly Merrill v. Milligan).” Brennan Center for Justice, July 18, 2022.
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/court-cases/allen-v-milligan-formerly-merrill-vmilligan.
Alleyne, Akilah. “Book Banning, Curriculum Restrictions, and the Politicization of U.S.
Schools.” Center for American Progress, September 19, 2022.
https://www.americanprogress.org/article/book-banning-curriculum-restrictions-and-thepoliticization-of-u-s-schools/.

84
“America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places for 2021: National Trust for Historic
Preservation.” National Trust for Historic Preservation, June 3, 2021.
https://savingplaces.org/stories/11-most-endangered-historic-places-2021#.YbeymS-B3BJ.
“America’s National Trails System - Pacific Crest Trail Association.” Pacific Crest Trail
Association. Accessed March 4, 2024. https://www.pcta.org/our-work/national-trailssystem/.
Anderson, Devery. “Who’s Who in the Emmett Till Case.” Devery Anderson. Accessed January
11, 2024. https://www.deveryanderson.com/whos-who-in-the-emmett-till-case.
“Antiquities Act.” Antiquities Act | National Trust for Historic Preservation.
https://savingplaces.org/antiquities-act.
“Antiquities Act of 1906.” National Park Service, March 2023.
https://www.nps.gov/subjects/archeology/antiquities-act.htm.
“The Apology.” Emmett Till Interpretive Center. Accessed January 11, 2024.
https://www.emmett-till.org/apology.
The Associated Press. “A Statue of Emmett Till Is Unveiled in Mississippi.” NPR, October 22,
2022. https://www.npr.org/2022/10/21/1130419579/mississippi-town-with-confederatemonument-gets-emmett-till-statue.
Baker, Sinéad. “Trump and His Allies Are Using the Prospect of a ‘red Mirage’ Election Result
to Prepare a Betrayal Narrative for November.” Business Insider, September 3, 2020.
https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-creates-narrative-red-mirage-election-night-mailvotes-2020-9.
Berger, Maurice. “The Lasting Power of Emmett Till’s Image.” The New York Times, April 5,
2017. https://archive.nytimes.com/lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2017/04/05/controversycontexts-using-emmett-tills-image/.
Betts, Anna. “Biden to Name National Monument for Emmett Till and His Mother.” The New
York Times, July 23, 2023. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/23/us/emmett-tillmonument-biden.html.
Biden, Joseph R. “A Proclamation on Establishment of the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley
National Monument.” The White House, July 25, 2023.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2023/07/25/aproclamation-on-establishment-of-the-emmett-till-and-mamie-till-mobley-nationalmonument/.
Biography.com Editors. “Jimmie Lee Jackson Biography.” Biography.com, July 7, 2020.
https://www.biography.com/activists/jimmie-lee-jackson.

85
“The Black Codes and Jim Crow Laws.” National Geographic Education. Accessed January 11,
2024. https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/black-codes-and-jim-crow-laws/.
Block, Melissa, and Elissa Nadworny. “Here’s What’s Become of a Historic All-Black Town in
the Mississippi Delta.” NPR, March 8, 2017.
https://www.npr.org/2017/03/08/515814287/heres-whats-become-of-a-historic-all-blacktown-in-the-mississippi-delta.
Braxton, Joanne. “Maya Angelou: 1619 and the Making of America.” William & Mary.
Accessed January 11, 2024.
https://www.wm.edu/as/africanastudies/middlepassage/1619initiative/angelou/.
Bruce, Catherine Fleming. The Sustainers: Being, building and doing good through activism in
the sacred spaces of civil rights, human rights and Social Movements, 2nd ed. (South
Carolina: TNOVSA LLC, 2019), 151.
Callard, Abby. “Emmett Till’s Casket Goes to the Smithsonian.” Smithsonian.com, November
2009. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/emmett-tills-casket-goes-to-thesmithsonian-144696940/.
Campisi, Jessica, and Brandon Griggs. “Emmett Till’s Memorial Sign Was Riddled with Bullet
Holes. 35 Days after Being Replaced, It Was Shot up Again.” CNN, August 6, 2018.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/06/us/emmett-till-sign-vandalized-trnd/index.html.
CBS News. “Bulletproof Emmett Till Marker Dedicated Saturday Replaces Vandalized Sign.”
CBS News, October 19, 2019. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/emmett-till-deathbulletproof-marker-dedicated-saturday-replaces-repeatedly-vandalized-sign-2019-10-19/.
The Central Park Conservancy. “Before Central Park: The Story of Seneca Village.” Central
Park Conservancy, January 18, 2018. https://www.centralparknyc.org/articles/senecavillage.
Cep, Casey. “The Fight to Preserve African-American History.” The New Yorker, January 27,
2020. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/02/03/the-fight-to-preserve-africanamerican-history.
Chhaya, P. (2022, March 17). “54 miles to home”: The Selma to Montgomery camp sites. “54
Miles to Home”: The Selma to Montgomery Camp Sites | National Trust for Historic
Preservation. https://savingplaces.org/stories/54-miles-to-home-the-selma-tomontgomery-camp-sites
“The Civil Rights Movement.” The Library of Congress. Accessed January 11, 2024.
https://www.loc.gov/classroom-materials/united-states-history-primary-sourcetimeline/post-war-united-states-1945-1968/civil-rightsmovement/#:~:text=Civil%20Rights%20March%20from%20Selma,arose%20across%20th
e%20United%20States.

86
“Collecting Histories.” The British Museum. Accessed January 11, 2024.
https://www.britishmuseum.org/about-us/british-museum-story/collecting-histories.
Congress.gov. "H.R.4 - 117th Congress (2021-2022): John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement
Act of 2021." September 14, 2021. https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/housebill/4.
Creating a legacy of hope. Emmett Till Legacy Foundation.
https://emmetttilllegacyfoundation.com/
Davis-Marks, Isis. “Bearing Witness to Racism in America Today.” Smithsonian.com, August
27, 2021. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/smithsonian-displaysbullet-riddled-sign-documented-site-emmett-tills-horrific-murder-180978334/.
“Defaced Emmett till Historic Marker.” National Museum of American History. Accessed
January 11, 2024. https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_1986561.
“Discover America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places for 2022: National Trust for Historic
Preservation.” National Trust for Historic Preservation, May 4, 2022.
https://savingplaces.org/stories/11-most-endangered-historic-places-for2022#.YnL5gBPMI6W.
“Emmett Louis Till Fine and Performing Arts Magnet School.” Emmett Till Elementary.
Accessed January 11, 2024. https://www.emmetttillelementary.com/.
“Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument.” National Park Foundation.
Accessed January 11, 2024. https://www.nationalparks.org/explore/parks/emmett-mamietill-mobley-national-monument.
Emmett Till Historic Intrepid Center. Accessed January 11, 2024. https://glendorams.com/.
Emmett Till Interpretive Center. “Tweet.” Twitter, September 2, 2021.
https://twitter.com/etic_tillcenter/status/1433562557713825795.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. (2023, July 21). Selma March. Encyclopædia Britannica.
https://www.britannica.com/event/Selma-March
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. (2023, August 28). American Civil Rights Movement.
Encyclopædia
Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/event/American-civil-rights-movement
EPA. “What Is the National Environmental Policy Act?” EPA, 2023.
https://www.epa.gov/nepa/what-national-environmental-policy-act.

87
“Explore Census Data | Mound Bayou City, Mississippi.” United States Census Bureau, 2022.
https://data.census.gov/profile/Mound_Bayou_city,_Mississippi?g=160XX00US2849320#
populations-and-people.
Fields, Gary. “Civil Rights: The Road to Bloody Sunday Began 30 Miles Away.” AP News,
March 7, 2020. https://apnews.com/article/us-news-ap-top-news-voting-selma-votingrights-35e9b7e91a9c8b87b351c34d65e45d2f.
Fieldstadt, Elisha. “Michael Brown Memorial Rebuilt After Destruction by Car.” MSNBC,
December 26, 2014. http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/michael-brown-memorial-fergusonrebuilt.
“First Stories.” National Parks Service, November 2022.
https://www.nps.gov/deto/learn/historyculture/first-stories.htm.
Fox, Margalit. “Willie Louis, Who Named the Killers of Emmett Till at Their Trial, Dies at 76.”
The New York Times, July 25, 2013. https://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/25/us/willielouis-who-named-the-killers-of-emmett-till-at-their-trial-dies-at-76.html.
Gao, Di, Leslie Canaan, Renee Kuhlman, Jim Lindberg, Rob Nieweg, and Amy Webb. “Leading
the Change Together: A National Impact Agenda for the Preservation Movement.”
National Trust for Historic Preservation, October 26, 2021.
https://savingplaces.org/stories/leading-the-change-together-national-impact-agenda.
Goriup, Paul. “The International Journal for Protected Area Managers.” Newbury, UK: World
Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) of IUCN - The World Conservation Union,
2004. https://www.iucn.org/sites/default/files/import/downloads/14_2lowres.pdf.
Gorn, Elliott, and Dave Tell. “Burr Oak Cemetery - till’s Final Resting Spot Has Never Been
without Drama.” Emmett Till Memory Project. Accessed March 18, 2024.
https://tillapp.emmett-till.org/items/show/21.
Greer, Caroline. “Brown Chapel AME Church.” Encyclopedia of Alabama, December 13, 2023.
https://encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/brown-chapel-ame-church/.
Halberstam, David. The Fifties. (Ballantine Books), 1993.
Hamilton, Andy. “Conservatism.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Updated October 29,
2019. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/conservatism/.
Hassan, Adeel. “Emmett Till’s Enduring Legacy.” The New York Times, April 27, 2023.
https://www.nytimes.com/article/who-was-emmett-till.html.
Heffern, Sarah, and Jamesha Gibson. “Historic Designations 101: National Trust for Historic
Preservation.” Historic Designations 101 | National Trust for Historic Preservation,

88
September 8, 2023. https://savingplaces.org/stories/preservation-tips-tools-how-to-save-aplace-apply-for-historic-designation.
Hill, Carla. “White Supremacist Propaganda Produced by U.S. Hate Groups Is Spreading - and
Working.” NBCNews.com, February 24, 2020.
https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/white-supremacist-propaganda-produced-u-shate-groups-spreading-working-ncna1140726.
Hilton, Mark. “Clinton Melton Historical Marker.” Historical Marker Database, October 5, 2020.
https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=89871.
Hilton, Mark. “Glendora Gin Historical Marker.” Historical Marker Database, October 25, 2016.
https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=89882.
Hilton, Mark. “King’s Place Historical Marker.” Historical Marker Database, October 25, 2016.
https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=89872.
Hilton, Mark. “Tutwiler Funeral Home Historical Marker.” Historical Marker Database,
December 11, 2021. https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=173985.
“Historic Preservation Fund.” The National Park Service, June 12, 2023.
https://www.nps.gov/subjects/historicpreservationfund/index.htm.
Historic Resources Group, and Paul Travis. “California Preservation Foundation Historic
Resources 101.” Los Angeles: Historic Resources Group, 2016.
https://californiapreservation.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/1.PaulTravis_SurveyResources-101Jan2016.pdf
History.com Editors. “This Day in History | August 28, 1955 | Emmett Till Is Murdered.”
History.com. Accessed January 11, 2024. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/thedeath-of-emmett-till.
“History of the Emmett Till Interpretive Center.” Emmett Till Interpretive Center. Accessed
January 11, 2024. https://www.emmett-till.org/history.
“Home.” Sites of Conscience. (2022, October 3). https://www.sitesofconscience.org/
Howard, Phillip. “Safe Shelter for Marchers and Support for a Movement.” The Conservation
Fund, June 3, 2021. https://www.conservationfund.org/impact/blog/land/2483-safe-shelterfor-marchers-and-support-for-a-movement.
“The Impact of Words and Tips for Using Appropriate Terminology: Am I Using the Right
Word?” National Museum of the American Indian | Smithsonian.
https://americanindian.si.edu/nk360/informational/impact-words-tips.

89
The Indigenous Circle of Experts. “The Indigenous Circle of Experts’ Report and
Recommendations, March 2018.” The Indigenous Circle of Experts, 2018.
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/57e007452e69cf9a7af0a033/t/5ab94aca6d2a7338ecb
1d05e/1522092766605/PA234-ICE_Report_2018_Mar_22_web.pdf
“Israel War on Gaza: Today’s Latest From Al Jazeera.” Al Jazeera. Accessed January 8, 2024.
https://www.aljazeera.com/tag/israel-war-on-gaza/.
Jones, Brenda. “National Trust’s Action Fund Receives $20 Million Mackenzie Scott Grant.”
National Trust for Historic Preservation, June 16, 2021. https://savingplaces.org/presscenter/media-resources/action-fund-receives-20-million-grant.
Jones, Zoe Christen. “Emmett Till Memorial Sign Missing Days after 66th Anniversary of His
Death.” CBS News, September 3, 2021. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/emmett-tillmarker-missing-mississippi-66th-anniverary/.
Lang, Cady. “What the Artists Behind George Floyd Murals Around the World Want Us to
Remember.” TIME, May 25, 2022. https://time.com/6180773/george-floyd-murals/.
“LDF at Selma: Williams v. Wallace and LDF’s Work Protecting Selma Foot Soldiers.” Legal
Defense Fund. Accessed January 11, 2024. https://www.naacpldf.org/ldf-atselma/williams-v-wallace/.
Levenson, Eric. “Emmett Till Memorial Sign in Mississippi Is Now Protected by Bulletproof
Glass.” CNN, October 20, 2019. https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/20/us/emmett-tillmemorial-bulletproof-trnd/index.html.
“Life Story: Mamie Till-Mobley (1921-2003).” Women & the American Story. Accessed
January 11, 2024. https://wams.nyhistory.org/growth-and-turmoil/cold-warbeginnings/mamie-till-mobley/.
Loch, Beth. “#OBOC: Emmett Till’s Legacy.” Chicago Public Library, August 21, 2015.
https://www.chipublib.org/blogs/post/emmett-tills-legacy-60-years-after-his-murder/.
Martin, Alison. “This Week in History: Emmett Till’s Murderers Charged as Body Laid to Rest.”
Chicago Sun-Times, September 9, 2021.
https://chicago.suntimes.com/2021/9/9/22661228/emmett-till-burial-burr-oak-cemetery.
Martinez, Monica Muñoz. (2020). The Injustice Never Leaves You: Anti-Mexican Violence in
Texas. Harvard University press.
Maxouris, Christina, Hollie Silverman, and Artemis Moshtaghian. “A White Supremacist Group
Filmed in Front of the Emmett Till Sign Weeks After It Was Made Bulletproof.” CNN,
November 4, 2019. https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/03/us/emmett-till-memorial-whitesupremacist-group-video/index.html.

90
Mississippi Department of Archives and History. “Mississippi Landmark Status.” Emmett Till
Memory Project. Accessed January 11, 2024. https://tillapp.emmett-till.org/files/show/93.
“Mississippi NHL Montgomery, I.T., House.” National Archives and Records Administration,
https://catalog.archives.gov/.
Nathan Rosen, Joel. “Mound Bayou.” Mississippi Encyclopedia, May 2, 2018.
https://mississippiencyclopedia.org/entries/mound-bayou/.
The National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers. “Historic Tax Credit.”
NCSHPO, 2024. https://ncshpo.org/resources/historic-tax-credit/.
National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers. “The National Historic Preservation
Act as Amended through Dec. 16, 2016 and Codified in Title 54 of the United States
Code,”. https://ncshpo.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/nhpaTitle54Dec2016.pdf.
National Indigenous Australians Agency; Department of Climate Change. “Australia’s
Indigenous Protected Areas Program - Fact Sheet.” Department of Climate Change,
Energy, the Environment and Water, January 1, 1970.
https://www.dcceew.gov.au/environment/land/publications/australia-indigenous-protectedarea-program.
“National Historic Trails.” National Park Service. Accessed February 24, 2024.
https://www.nps.gov/subjects/nationaltrailssystem/national-historic-trails.htm
“National Monument Facts and Figures.” National Park Service. Accessed January 11, 2024.
https://www.nps.gov/subjects/archeology/national-monument-facts-and-figures.htm.
National Park Service. “The Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for the Treatment of Historic
Properties.” National Park Service, 2023. https://www.nps.gov/orgs/1739/secretarystandards-treatment-historic-properties.htm.
National Park Service. “What Is the National Register of Historic Places?” National Park
Service, 2023. https://www.nps.gov/subjects/nationalregister/what-is-the-nationalregister.htm.
“NPS Story Map Journal”. (n.d.-a).
https://www.nps.gov/gis/storymaps/mapjournal/v2/index.html?appid=1656e9dc45e74ae7
8dc7549d1ef725b0
The National Trust for Historic Preservation. “African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund
Announces $3.8M in 2023 Juneteenth Grants.” National Trust for Historic Preservation,
June 13, 2023. https://savingplaces.org/press-center/media-resources/aachaf-38m-in-2023-
grants.

91
Otero-Palios, J. Future Anterior: Journal of Historic Preservation History, Theory, and
Criticism, 2nd ed., Vol. 18. (GSAPP, Columbia University, 2021).
Pacific Crest Trail Association. “America’s National Trails System.” Pacific Crest Trail
Association. Accessed January 12, 2024. https://www.pcta.org/our-work/national-trailssystem/.
“Past Lists.” 10 Most Endangered Historic Places in Mississippi. Accessed January 11, 2024.
https://www.10mostms.com/past-lists.
Pius, Vanessa. “12 Things You Might Not Know About Mamie Till-Mobley.” National Parks
Conservation Association, November 23, 2021. https://www.npca.org/articles/3036-12-
things-you-might-not-know-about-mamie-till-mobley.
“Preservation Chicago - Love Your City Fiercely!” Preservation Chicago. Accessed January 11,
2024. https://www.preservationchicago.org/.
Preservation Chicago. “Win: Emmett till Home Awarded $150K Grant from the National Trust
for Historic Preservation’s African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund.” Preservation
Chicago, July 21, 2022. https://www.preservationchicago.org/win-emmett-till-homeawarded-150k-grant-from-the-national-trust-for-historic-preservations-african-americancultural-heritage-actionfund/#:~:text=Preservation%20Chicago%20played%20an%20essential,Till%2DMobley%
20home%20since%202006.
Razek, Raja. “Alabama Church Known for Role in Voting Rights Movement Is on the List of
Most Endangered Historic Places.” CNN, May 4, 2022.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/04/us/selma-alabama-church-most-endangered-historicplaces-list/index.html.
Reeves, J. (2021, June 3). History in danger: Selma to Montgomery March campsites on list of
threatened places. Montgomery Advertiser.
https://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/news/2021/06/03/selma-to-montgomerymarch-campsites-on-list-endangered-places/7525109002/
Roberts, Andrea. “Curating Freedom: Making Hidden Black Publics Visible with Descendant
Communities.” Center for the Preservation of Civil Rights Sites, 2019.
https://cpcrs.upenn.edu/resource/curating-freedom-making-hidden-black-publics-visibledescendant-communities.
Rodriguez, Eddy. “Calls Mounting for Alabama Bridge to Be Renamed for the Late John Lewis,
Petition Reaches Over 430K Signatures.” Newsweek.com, July 18, 2020.
https://www.newsweek.com/calls-grow-alabama-bridge-renamed-late-john-lewis-petitionreaches-over-415k-signatures-1518865

92
Sabaggh, Dan. “Trump 2016 Campaign ‘Targeted 3.5m Black Americans to Deter Them from
Voting.’” The Guardian, September 28, 2020. https://www.theguardian.com/usnews/2020/sep/28/trump-2016-campaign-targeted-35m-black-americans-to-deter-themfrom-voting.
Saving Antiquities for Everyone, (SAFE). “Cultural Heritage at Risk: United States.” Khan
Academy. Accessed January 11, 2024. https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/specialtopics-art-history/arches-at-risk-cultural-heritage-educationseries/xa0148fd6a60f2ff6:cultural-heritage-endangered-round-the-world/a/culturalheritage-at-risk-united-states.
“Selma March Timeline.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Accessed January 11, 2024.
https://www.britannica.com/story/selma-march-timeline.
Selma Montgomery National Historic Trail. Civil Rights Travel. (2023, January 7).
https://civilrightstravel.com/selma-montgomery-national-historic-trail/
“Shelby County v. Holder Case Documents.” Brennan Center for Justice, August 4, 2018.
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/court-cases/shelby-county-v-holder-casedocuments?_ga=2.240170369.365002651.1697741453-2082977105.1697741453.
“The Shocking Story of Approved Killing in Mississippi.” Famous Trials. Accessed January 11,
2024. http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/till/confession.html.
Stanford University. “Our God Is Marching On!” The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and
Education Institute. Accessed March 15, 2024. https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/our-godmarching.
The Stars for Freedom Rally - NPS history. http://npshistory.com/brochures/semo/stars-forfreedom-rally.pdf
“Strengthening the Voting Rights Act.” Brennan Center for Justice, September 19, 2023.
https://www.brennancenter.org/issues/ensure-every-american-can-vote/votingreform/strengthening-voting-rights-act.
“Tallahatchie County Courthouse Restoration: Belinda Stewart Architects.” Belinda Stewart
Architects. Accessed January 11, 2024.
https://belindastewartarchitects.com/portfolio/tallahatchie-county-courthouse-restoration2/.
Tell, Dave. “A Home in Chicago.” Emmett Till Memory Project. Accessed January 11, 2024.
https://tillapp.emmett-till.org/items/show/22.
Tell, Dave. “Bryant’s Grocery & Meat Market.” Emmett Till Memory Project.
https://tillapp.emmett-till.org/items/show/1.

93
Tell, Dave. “King’s Place.” Emmett Till Memory Project. Accessed January 11, 2024.
https://tillapp.emmett-till.org/items/show/11?tour=2&index=4.
Tell, Dave. “Sumner Courthouse - the Trial, the Architecture, the Controversy.” Emmett Till
Memory Project. Accessed January 11, 2024. https://tillapp.emmett-till.org/items/show/9.
Texas Freedom Colonies Project. “Dr. Andrea Roberts.”.
https://www.thetexasfreedomcoloniesproject.com/about-the-founder.
Till-Mobley, Mamie, and Christopher Benson. Death of Innocence: The Story of the Hate Crime
That Changed America. (New York: The Random House Publishing Group), 2003.
“Till House Museum.” Blacks in Green. Accessed January 11, 2024.
https://www.blacksingreen.org/till-house-museum.
Thompson, Erin L. Smashing Statues: The Rise and Fall of America’s Public Monuments. (New
York: W. W. Norton & Company), 2022.
Thúy Nguyễn, Ann, and Maya Pendleton. “Recognizing Race in Language: Why We Capitalize
‘Black’ and ‘White.’” Center for the Study of Social Policy, March 31, 2021.
https://cssp.org/2020/03/recognizing-race-in-language-why-we-capitalize-black-andwhite/.
“Town of White Hall.” Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/whitehalltownhall/.
Tyson, Timothy B. The Blood of Emmett Till. (New York: Simon & Schuster), 2017.
US Census Bureau. “Voting and Registration Tables.” Census.gov, April 2023.
https://www.census.gov/topics/public-sector/voting/data/tables.html.
U.S. Department of the Interior. (2020, June 26). Alabama: Selma to Montgomery National
Historic Trail (U.S. National Park Service). National Parks Service.
https://www.nps.gov/places/selma-to-montgomery-national-historic-trail.htm
U.S. Department of the Interior. (2023a, June). National Historic Trails. National Parks Service.
https://www.nps.gov/subjects/nationaltrailssystem/national-historictrails.htm#:~:text=These%20trails%20follow%20past%20routes,%2C%20trail%20segme
nts%2C%20and%20waterways.
U.S. Department of the Interior. (2023b, September). Places - Selma to Montgomery National
Historic Trail. National Parks Service.
https://www.nps.gov/semo/learn/historyculture/places.htm.
United States Environmental Protection Agency. “What Is the National Environmental Policy
Act? | US EPA.” United States Environmental Protection Agency, Updated October 5,
2023. https://www.epa.gov/nepa/what-national-environmental-policy-act.

94
“Voting Timeline.” civiced.org. Accessed January 9, 2024. https://www.civiced.org/votinglessons/voting-timeline.
Wells, Jeremy C. 10 Ways Historic Preservation Policy Supports White Supremacy and 10 Ideas
to End It, June 2020. https://api.drum.lib.umd.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/45f993bb82b1-4346-aa08-d1a103978684/content.
“What’s the Appropriate Term: Aboriginal...First Nation.” Working with Indigenous Australians,
Updated July 2022.
http://www.workingwithindigenousaustralians.info/content/Indigenous_Australians_3_Ap
prorpiate_Terms.html.
Whitfield, Stephen J. A Death in the Delta: the story of Emmett Till. (Baltimore: The John
Hopkins University Press), 1988.
Wiessbourd, Richard, and Chris Murphy. “We Have Put Individualism Ahead of the Common
Good for Too Long.” TIME, April 11, 2023. https://time.com/6269091/individualismahead-of-the-common-good-for-too-long/.
Williams, Lance R. “Cultural Resources Report: Vandalism to Cultural Resources of the Rocky
Mountain West.” Albuquerque, NM: USDA Forest Service, Southwestern Region, April
1978. http://npshistory.com/publications/usfs/region/3/crr-21.pdf.

95
APPENDIX A: Preservation tools and terms list. Created by author.

96

97

98
APPENDIX B: White House telegram from President Lyndon B. Johnson, sending
his support to Clarence B. Jones, Dr. King’s lawyer, March 10th, 1965. Source: White House
Archives.

99
APPENDIX C: Clipping from the Chicago Times, “Grieving Mother Meets Body Of
Lynched Son (2): Mother Waits In Vain for Her 'Bo'”. Source: Chicago Defender via Emmett
Till Project.

Abstract (if available)

Abstract It seems as if every day I am learning of new elements of Black history that have either not been taught in schools or have almost been lost due to dying ancestry and resources. The campsites along the Selma-to-Montgomery National Historic Trail are slowly slipping into non-existence and are well on their way to becoming yet another of these places that the next generation will not know about. On the other hand, the Emmett Till Memorial Sign is constantly being vandalized and attacked, requiring continual replacement and supervision. The practice of heritage conservation in the United States is not doing all it can to properly address the issues of conserving vulnerable heritage sites that are related to Black American or African American heritage. Bringing awareness, but also protection to sites and resources of such rich cultural history is now more necessary than ever. As the world becomes increasingly politically recessive and conservative, the threat of losing underrepresented heritage is at a high. The field of heritage conservation needs to find impartial methods of preserving heritage so that underrepresented and vulnerable heritage sites are not being forgotten or further endangered.

Linked assets

University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses

Conceptually similar

PDF

The tent, camel, and coffee: safeguarding the intangible cultural heritage of the Rum Village Bedouins

PDF

Heritage in practice: a study of two urban rivers

PDF

Legacy business program implementation in American urban immigrant neighborhoods: a case study of Little Tokyo and Chinatown, Los Angeles

PDF

"It's important to remember what started it": conserving sites and stories of racial violence in Los Angeles, 1943-1992

PDF

Mobilizing heritage conservation as a tool for urban resilience: linkages and recommendations

PDF

Drag culture of Los Angeles: intangible heritage through ephemeral places

PDF

Examining Feng Shui as tangible and intangible cultural heritage

PDF

Preserving California City: an exploration into the city plan preservation of a mid-century, master-planned community

PDF

Conservation 'on the natch': maintenance and remembrance at the Alcoholism Center for Women

PDF

Educating generations: the legacy and future of the Allen-White School campus, a Rosenwald School in Whiteville, Tennessee

PDF

Amplifying quieter narratives: strategies for cultural landscape conservation at Santa Cruz Island

PDF

Gaining a foothold: conserving Los Angeles' queer Eden(dale)

PDF

Reconstruction right now: conserving vernacular heritage in Beaufort, South Carolina as an act of reconstructing preservation practice

PDF

Seeing beyond the fog: preserving San Francisco's cultural heritage in the Clement Street Corridor

PDF

Would community design overlay (CDO) be a tool for revitalizing Los Angeles Chinatown?

PDF

Yuba-Sutter: a case study for heritage conservation in Punjabi-American communities

PDF

Money in the bank: three case studies in the adaptive reuse of midcentury bank branch buildings

PDF

The ambivalence of conserving Busan’s colonial heritage

PDF

Oakwood: exploring the tangible & intangible resources of a “Black ethnic enclave” in Venice, California–early 1900s through 1960s

PDF

Identifying and conserving Pacoima: a heritage conservation study of a minority enclave in the San Fernando Valley

Asset Metadata

Creator Williams, Kira (author)

Core Title Being a part of the narrative: how can we preserve Black heritage in the U.S. South while mitigating violence and facilitating change?

School School of Architecture

Degree Master of Heritage Conservation / Master of Urban Planning

Degree Program Heritage Conservation / Urban Planning

Degree Conferral Date 2024-05

Publication Date 04/03/2024

Defense Date 03/30/2024

Publisher Los Angeles, California (original), University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag Black heritage,Black history,Civil rights,conservation,OAI-PMH Harvest,preservation,Racism

Format theses (aat)

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Sandmier, Trudi (committee chair), Olnick, Cindy (committee member), Roberts, Andrea (committee member)

Creator Email kira.willi@gmail.com,kirawill@usc.edu

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-oUC113867468

Unique identifier UC113867468

Identifier etd-WilliamsKi-12756.pdf (filename)

Legacy Identifier etd-WilliamsKi-12756

Document Type Thesis

Format theses (aat)

Rights Williams, Kira

Internet Media Type application/pdf

Type texts

Source 20240404-usctheses-batch-1135 (batch), University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the author, as the original true and official version of the work, but does not grant the reader permission to use the work if the desired use is covered by copyright. It is the author, as rights holder, who must provide use permission if such use is covered by copyright.

Repository Name University of Southern California Digital Library

Repository Location USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus MC 2810, 3434 South Grand Avenue, 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, California 90089-2810, USA

Repository Email cisadmin@lib.usc.edu