In Bellevue, Maryland—one of the Eastern Shore’s last historically Black maritime communities—plans for fourteen multimillion-dollar waterfront homes threaten historical erasure, the village’s working-class character, and communal bonds. In response, the founders of the Bellevue Passage Museum are racing to safeguard the village’s legacy.

Mound Bayou—founded in 1887 by Isaiah T. Montgomery and Benjamin T. Green as the oldest all-Black municipality in the United States and known as the “Jewel of the Delta”—is home to the Mound Bayou Museum of African-American Culture and History, which honors it’s legacy of self-governance, mutual aid, and resilience—a mission rooted in a spiritual calling passed down through generations.

Friends of the Tanner House formed in December 2021 to rescue Henry Ossawa Tanner’s childhood home in Philadelphia. In 2023, they launched a community-driven visioning process to transform it into a cultural center tailored to local needs—demonstrating how centering people over policy fosters survival and connection and how preserving a historic home can empower an entire community.

The Middle Passage Ceremonies and Port Markers Project was founded in 2011 to honor the memory of the two million Africans who perished during the transatlantic crossing and the ten million who survived, shaping the Americas through the placement of historical markers and public ceremonies of remembrance across the United States.

The Gullah/Geechee Cultural Community Trust in Nassau County, Florida engages struggles related to land loss, displacement, and the ongoing fight for self-determination. From zoning battles to protecting ancestral burial grounds, they explore what it truly means to preserve not just Black history—but a living future.

Founded in 1862 as one of the first schools for formerly enslaved people, the Penn Center has long been a cornerstone of Black self-determination on St. Helena Island, South Carolina. Today, it remains a vital force for cultural preservation and land retention in the Gullah/Geechee corridor. 

In Greensboro, Alabama, stands a house that once shielded Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. from the deadly threats of the Ku Klux Klan two weeks before his assassination in Memphis, Tennessee. Today, the Safe House Black History Museum honors the everyday foot soldiers in the struggle and their sacrifices.

In 1931, nine Black teenagers—later known as the Scottsboro Boys—were falsely accused of raping two white women, igniting one of the most infamous legal injustices in U.S. history and a global fight for civil rights. Founded in 2010 by the late Sheila Washington, the Scottsboro Boys Museum preserves their story and her legacy, including her pivotal role in securing their posthumous exoneration through the 2013 Scottsboro Boys Act.

Founded in 2014, the Defend Glendale and Public Housing Coalition emerged when residents of Glendale Townhomes—a 1952 public housing community home to Black Americans, East African and Hmong immigrants, and working families—fought plans for privatization and demolition, transforming a threat of displacement into a lasting movement for housing, memory, and justice.

In Attleboro, Massachusetts, sisters Debra Britt, Felicia Walker, and Tamara Mattinson founded the National Black Doll Museum of History & Culture in 2012. What began as a family collecting practice gradually expanded into a museum housing more than 10,000 Black dolls. The collection centers on representation, youth self-esteem, and culturally grounded education rooted in Black history.

In Tallahassee, Florida, preservationist Althemese Pemberton Barnes helped reshape how the city remembers its African American past. In 1987, she led the restoration of Greenwood Cemetery, the city’s historic African American burial ground. She later helped establish the John G. Riley Center & Museum in 1996 and co-founded the Florida African American Heritage Preservation Network in 1997, connecting Black museums and heritage sites across the state. Altahmese Pemberton Barnes reflects on her journey and the work required to sustain grassroots preservation across generations.