Brent Leggs

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Demond "Brent" Leggs (born 22 November 1972) [1] is an African American architectural historian and preservationist from Paducah, Kentucky. [2] Among his roles at the National Trust for Historic Preservation he has been the founding executive director of the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund, which has raised over $150 million since 2017 for the preservation of historic Black places across the country. [3]

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He has played a role in reframing the idea of historic preservation, expanding its scope and its approach, including ways of using preservation activities to encourage and develop community resilience and sustainability. [2] Leggs' work is guided, he says, by the idea that preservation is "about economic development" and "the empowerment of people as much as it's about the history." [2]

Education

Leggs studied marketing at the University of Kentucky as an undergraduate, and earned his MBA there. He attended the University of Kentucky's graduate program in historic preservation (part of its School of Architecture), where his graduate studies were supported by the National Trust through its Mildred Colodny diversity scholarships. He remains one of a very small number of African Americans working in his field, although he has played a role in "credentialling" others. [2]

Professional achievements

The field work component of Leggs' career began with an inventory of Rosenwald schools in Kentucky during which he learned that his own parents had been students at Rosenwald schools. This experience convinced him "of the power that physical places have in shaping cultural memory." [2]

His early practical preservation work includes being project manager for places designated by the National Trust as National Treasures, including Joe Frazier's Gym in Philadelphia; Hinchliffe Stadium in Paterson, New Jersey; and Villa Lewaro, Madam C. J. Walker's estate in Irvington, New York. [4]

Using his business school training Leggs has developed the Northeast African American Historic Places Outreach Program, guided by "its theme, the Business of Preservation," with the goal of setting up "a regional movement of preservation leaders" to preserve African American landmarks. [4] Leggs has become an advocate and an advisor to "city leaders, property owners, and stakeholders" [5] at local and national levels on how to leverage business as well as cultural advantages from the preservation of historical sites as cultural assets. [2] [5]

Many of these sites have been associated with the State of Alabama, especially the city of Birmingham, and the Civil Rights Movement there, as well as America's Historically Black Colleges and Universities. [5] [6] He has also helped preserve Nina Simone's birthplace in Tryon, North Carolina, and John and Alice Coltrane's home in Huntington, New York. [7] The restoration of Simone's birthplace illustrates the sort of cooperation with locals Leggs advocates to find ongoing uses once an historical site has been preserved. [2] It also illustrates his commitment particularly to the involvement of African American women in both jazz and civil rights activities. [8]

As part of his work with the National Trust Leggs has played a large role in getting numerous African American sites recognized as historically significant. [2] In 2024, Leggs was profiled in Bloomberg about the Action Fund's work. "“Our industry has celebrated the grand architectural mansions, but that’s not the experience that you have with a Black vernacular site. To shift our industry’s understanding of what is worthy of preservation, both intellectually and in practice, was a big moment," he said.

African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund

Contribution to national discussion of monuments, racism, and preservation of history

In the 21st century a national discussion of the role of monuments in preserving and perpetuating a racist view of the United States' history turned into sometimes violent attacks on historical monuments glorifying Confederate soldiers and politicians. In 2017 protests and counterprotests at Charlottesville, Virginia, led to the death of Heather Heyer. National outrage made this an exceptional event that remains a reference point in various aspects of US culture, including historical preservation. [2] [9]

Following this event, in 2018 Leggs wrote in Essence about the history of saving sites significant to African American history and the multifaceted importance of doing so. He credited the National Association of Colored Women, led by Mary B. Talbert, for "inaugurating the Black preservation movement" by preserving Frederick Douglass' home in Washington a century earlier. [10] [2] Pointing out that the National Trust for Historic Preservation was "chartered by Congress in 1949 to help tell the full American story," Leggs concluded that "when the past is blanched and distorted through lack of diversity and representation, it affects both our understanding of today's issues and our capacity to grow in the future." [10]

In this context, the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund came into existence "to move the narrative beyond confederate heritage and ensure the preservation of national treasures integral to the full African American story." [11] Leggs sees the Fund's activities as playing a role in "reconstructing" America's national identity. [11]

"The largest-ever campaign to preserve African-American historic sites," in its first year it "received more than eight hundred applications requesting nearly ninety-one million dollars in grants." [2] Set up as a multi-year effort [10] with funding from public and private sources, it does not receive federal support since "the federal government stopped allocating funds to the National Trust in 1997." [2] Leggs has been responsible for much of the Fund's financial support, persuading both wealthy individuals and mainstream nonprofits such as the JPB Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to contribute. [2]

Impacts

Impacts of the Fund's activities include training young people in the skills needed for preservation work and developing research on the role of preservation of historical sites for community resilience. The Fund uses these results as leverage to persuade policy makers and community leaders to recognize the value of preservation work. [6] [11] Understanding "the economics of historic preservation" to be both profitable as well as costly, Leggs and the Action Fund help communities wanting to save historic space find "adaptive reuses" for such spaces that often challenge traditional notions of what historical preservation is about. [2]

"Along with elevating forgotten places," Leggs has written, the Fund aims "to reveal the hidden, and sometimes willfully obscured, layers of history at all historic sites." [10] This has involved retroactively adding information to existing recognized historical sites that might previously have ignored significant African American history associated with them, especially where the history of slavery in the United States is concerned. [2] The foundation for this retroactive move might be seen nearly two decades earlier, when Representative Jesse Jackson, Jr., added language to an appropriations bill "encouraging" the National Park Service, as part of its US heritage tourism activities, to "acknowledge" the role of institutionalized slavery "in all of their public displays and multimedia educational presentations." [2]

While he may be "typically contacted to help preserve something" that may have deteriorated badly, in 2013 Leggs got involved with ongoing attempts to save Shockoe Bottom in Richmond, VA, a place where much of the archaeological remains had been destroyed. [2] The Fund accepts as a principle that historical sites may remain important to cultural memory even in such cases, perhaps especially so in the case of African American history. [2]

Funded sites

The appearance of the award-winning film Green Book in 2018 drew attention to The Negro Motorist Green Book. Sites listed there are part of the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund's future plans and its current call for financial support. [12] Awards are announced annually. In 2019 new sites receiving support included Langston Hughes' house in Harlem, NYC; The Harriet Tubman Home in Auburn, NY; Satchel Paige's home in Kansas City, Missouri; the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument; The Forum in Chicago's Bronzeville neighborhood; the African Meeting House in Boston, MA; and the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. [13]

Academic accomplishments and honors

Leggs' faculty positions have included "Clinical Assistant Professor" at the University of Maryland's School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, and adjunct status at the Boston Architectural College. [4] He has also taught at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design as a Loeb Fellow, an honor given to those with, among other characteristics, "a passionate commitment to revitalizing communities." [14] [5] He has also taught at the University of Pennsylvania. [4]

He has co-authored Preserving African American Historic Places (2012), [15] which the Smithsonian Institution called the "seminal publication on preserving African American historic sites." [16] It "provides tools for protecting ... important landmarks in African American history." [5] He has also contributed to Preservation and Social Inclusion (2020). [17] He has made numerous public appearances, including on C-Span, [7] where he appeared four times between 2016 and 2019. [18]

In 2018 he received the Robert G. Stanton National Preservation Award. [7]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Register of Historic Places</span> Federal list of historic sites in the US

The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of sites, buildings, structures, districts, and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic value".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Trust for Historic Preservation</span> US nonprofit organization

The National Trust for Historic Preservation is a privately funded, nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., that works in the field of historic preservation in the United States. The member-supported organization was founded in 1949 by congressional charter to support the preservation of America’s diverse historic buildings, neighborhoods, and heritage through its programs, resources, and advocacy.

In the broadest sense, cultural resource management (CRM) is the vocation and practice of managing heritage assets, and other cultural resources such as contemporary art. It incorporates Cultural Heritage Management which is concerned with traditional and historic culture. It also delves into the material culture of archaeology. Cultural resource management encompasses current culture, including progressive and innovative culture, such as urban culture, rather than simply preserving and presenting traditional forms of culture.

World Monuments Fund (WMF) is a private, international, non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of historic architecture and cultural heritage sites around the world through fieldwork, advocacy, grantmaking, education, and training.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lowell National Historical Park</span> National park in Massachusetts, United States

Lowell National Historical Park is a National Historical Park of the United States located in Lowell, Massachusetts. Established in 1978 a few years after Lowell Heritage State Park, it is operated by the National Park Service and comprises a group of different sites in and around the city of Lowell related to the era of textile manufacturing in the city during the Industrial Revolution. In 2019, the park was included as Massachusetts' representative in the America the Beautiful Quarters series.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Historic preservation</span> Preservation of items of historical significance

Historic preservation (US), built heritage preservation or built heritage conservation (UK) is an endeavor that seeks to preserve, conserve and protect buildings, objects, landscapes or other artifacts of historical significance. It is a philosophical concept that became popular in the twentieth century, which maintains that cities as products of centuries' development should be obligated to protect their patrimonial legacy. The term refers specifically to the preservation of the built environment, and not to preservation of, for example, primeval forests or wilderness.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Historic Preservation Act</span> Legislation intended to preserve historic sites in the United States

The National Historic Preservation Act is legislation intended to preserve historic and archaeological sites in the United States of America. The act created the National Register of Historic Places, the list of National Historic Landmarks, and the State Historic Preservation Offices.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Conservation and restoration of immovable cultural property</span> Process of preservation of historically significant buildings

Conservation and restoration of immovable cultural property describes the process through which the material, historical, and design integrity of any immovable cultural property are prolonged through carefully planned interventions. The individual engaged in this pursuit is known as an architectural conservator-restorer. Decisions of when and how to engage in an intervention are critical to the ultimate conservation-restoration of cultural heritage. Ultimately, the decision is value based: a combination of artistic, contextual, and informational values is normally considered. In some cases, a decision to not intervene may be the most appropriate choice.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Historic New England</span>

Historic New England, previously known as the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities (SPNEA), is a charitable, non-profit, historic preservation organization headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. It is focused on New England and is the oldest and largest regional preservation organization in the United States. Historic New England owns and operates historic site museums and study properties throughout all of the New England states except Vermont, and serves more than 198,000 visitors and program participants each year. Approximately 48,000 visitors participate in school and youth programs focused on New England heritage.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Texas Historical Commission</span> Agency of the State of Texas, United States

The Texas Historical Commission is an agency dedicated to historic preservation within the U.S. state of Texas. It administers the National Register of Historic Places for sites in Texas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cultural heritage</span> Physical artifact or intangible attribute of a society inherited from past generations

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation</span>

The Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation is the United States' largest statewide, nonprofit preservation organization with more than 8,000 members. Founded in 1973 by Mary Gregory Jewett and others, the Trust is committed to preserving and enhancing Georgia's communities and their diverse historic resources for the education and enjoyment of all.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shockoe Bottom</span> United States historic place

Shockoe Bottom, historically known as Shockoe Valley, is an area in Richmond, Virginia, just east of downtown, along the James River. Located between Shockoe Hill and Church Hill, Shockoe Bottom contains much of the land included in Colonel William Mayo's 1737 plan of Richmond, making it one of the city's oldest neighborhoods.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Historic house museum</span> House that has been transformed into a museum

A historic house museum is a house of historic significance that is preserved as a museum. Historic furnishings may be displayed in a way that reflects their original placement and usage in a home. Historic house museums are held to a variety of standards, including those of the International Council of Museums. Houses are transformed into museums for a number of different reasons. For example, the homes of famous writers are frequently turned into writer's home museums to support literary tourism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Villa Lewaro</span> Historic house in New York, United States

Villa Lewaro, is a 34-room 20,000-square-foot (1,900 m2) mansion located at Fargo Lane and North Broadway in Irvington, New York, 30 miles north of New York City. It was built from 1916 to 1918, and was designed in the Italianate style by architect Vertner Tandy for A’lelia Walker, for her mother, Madam C.J. Walker. An additional site, the Dark Tower Walker residence with business occupancy, was established in New York City's Harlem neighborhood, thus completing the Walker property portfolio.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Save America's Treasures</span> US government preservation program

Save America's Treasures is a United States federal government initiative to preserve and protect historic buildings, arts, and published works. It is a public–private partnership between the U.S. National Park Service and the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities, and Institute of Museum and Library Services are also partners in the work. In the early years of the program, Heritage Preservation and the National Park Foundation were also involved.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jay Heritage Center</span> Non-profit organization in New York, United States

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Nellie Leber Longsworth was an American historian and advocate of historic preservation. She was a founder and president of the nonprofit Preservation Action for twenty-two years. She worked to preserve historic structures by working and lobbying to pass legislation in United States Congress.

The African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund is a program formed in 2017 to aid stewards of Black cultural sites throughout the nation in preserving both physical landmarks, their material collections and associated narratives. It was organized under the auspices of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The initiative which awards grants to select applicants and advocates of Black history is led by architectural historian Brent Leggs. It is the largest program in America to preserve places associated with Black history and has currently raised over $150 million.

Okahumpka Rosenwald School is a historic Rosenwald School building in rural Okahumpka, Florida, United States. It was built in 1929 and was used as a school for African American children in the community. It is one of the two remaining Rosenwald Schools in Lake County Florida.

References

  1. ↑ "LEGGS, BARBARA thru LEGGS, JESSE". Sorted By Name. 8 March 2020. Retrieved 6 May 2020.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Cep, Casey (3 February 2020). "Rescue Work: The Fight to Preserve African-American History". The New Yorker. pp. 26–31.
  3. ↑ "Lecture: Brent Leggs Past Event". University of Southern California School of Architecture. 2018. Archived from the original on 2019-01-26. Retrieved 1 May 2020.
  4. 1 2 3 4 "Brent Leggs". UMD School of Architecture. 2020. Archived from the original on 2015-12-24. Retrieved 1 May 2020.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 "Loeb Fellows". Harvard University Graduate School of Design. 2017. Retrieved 1 May 2020.
  6. 1 2 Daly, Joel (26 July 2019). "Brent Leggs: Seeing History, Seeing Potential". Creative Mornings. Archived from the original on 2020-10-27. Retrieved 2 May 2020.
  7. 1 2 3 "Brent Leggs - Executive Director, African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund". National Trust for Historic Preservation. 2020. Retrieved 1 May 2020.
  8. ↑ Chow, Andrew R. (18 June 2018). "Nina Simone's Childhood Home Gets 'National Treasure' Designation". New York Times. Archived from the original on 2018-06-18. Retrieved 2 May 2020.
  9. ↑ Menconi, David (15 August 2017). "Are Confederate Statues Considered Art, or history worth preserving". News and Observer. Archived from the original on 2017-08-16. Retrieved 26 April 2020.
  10. 1 2 3 4 Leggs, Brent (19 February 2018). "Historic Preservation: Saving African American Spaces Is The New Black Activism". Essence. Archived from the original on 2018-07-13. Retrieved 2 May 2020.
  11. 1 2 3 Haslam, Maggie (30 November 2017). "Brent Leggs to lead National African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund". University of Maryland School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. Archived from the original on 2018-05-12. Retrieved 1 May 2020.
  12. ↑ "African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund". African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund. 2020. Archived from the original on 2017-11-16. Retrieved 2 May 2020.
  13. ↑ "Homes of Harriet Tubman and Langston Hughes among 22 Sites Getting Funding to Help Preserve African-American History". Good Black News. 7 July 2019. Archived from the original on 2020-04-22. Retrieved 2 May 2020.
  14. ↑ "Loeb Fellowship". Harvard University Graduate School of Design. 2020. Archived from the original on 2017-09-22. Retrieved 1 May 2020.
  15. ↑ Leggs, Brent; Rubman, Kerri; Wood, Byrd (2012). Preserving African American Historic Places. National Trust for Historic Preservation.
  16. ↑ "Seventh Annual Tom Tom Founders Festival". Tom Tom Founders Festival 2018. 2018. Archived from the original on 2020-09-22. Retrieved 1 May 2020.
  17. ↑ Avrami, Erica (15 March 2020). Preservation and Social Inclusion. Columbia University, Graduate School of Architecture. ISBN   978-1-941332-60-3.
  18. ↑ "Brent Leggs". C-Span. 2020. Retrieved 2 May 2020.
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