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A Planning Lesson: Addressing Racism and Inequity in Historic Preservation
What is historic By Franny Mclarty 2020-2021 Fellowship, American Planning Association Urban Design and Preservation Division
Historic
This zine is inspired by "A Planning Lesson: Addressing Racism in Our Built Environment" by Michelle Castro-Pilar and is meant to act as a complementary sequel to her work. Some language and formatting has been used to match her booklet.
the case,
You can find Michelle Castro-Pilar's booklet on the APAUrban Design and Preservation Division website under Fellowship Program, Past Fellows.
spaces.
This work allows us to have active
present
and future
Overall design and cover art by Franny Melarty.
governments through regulations
Disclaimer:This project is a working document and does not tell the full lived experiences of how historic preservation contributes and has contributed to inequality in our cities and towns.
defining
preservation
about historic architecture
is about valuing the places that are special
preservation or erecting
historic
important
people,
alive
histories.
the
and ideas.
and storytelling;
resources
communities
restoring,
with European-inspired
that
preservation repurposing,
conversations
"carry
culturally
about keeping
and reimagining
dollars
for
into federal,
It has tangible building
Often, that
those
important
are experts
in their
U.S. preservation hold stories
preservation
oppression and erasure of minority experiences
influences
and local on day-toprojects
to
district3.
of
own histories, preservation
policy
knowledge efforts
has failed
communities of
around knowledge and stories
Understanding the ways in which historic
state,
rehabilitation
people have engaged in historic policy.
is
represent
about the past that inform our
is incorporated
and designations.
taxpayer
encompasses much more: the
remember, acknowledge, mourn, and learn from our
preservation
toward spaces
have had to
buildings
human experience
Historic
communities themselves
before U.S. preservation adequate
of
the boundaries of a town's historic
Most importantly, keeping,
stories
and to celebrate,
from directing
of saving
as a concept and practice
through preserving,
Today, historic
day life,
ideas
to us1. When thinking
of war heroes may come to mind. While that is sometimes
preservation holds
stories
efforts,
statues
urban environment events,
reservation?
in
to devote
color.
[their]
long
Those
bodies"2.
has been and is used as a tool for
can help us plan for more just cities.
United States 1861 - 1865
..._ _______
Preservation
Policy:
Part 1
1916
1872
...... , ,.. ,.t----.-'----------------------~-<-----------► ~ NATIONAL PARK SERVICE CIVILWAR. YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK Some of the earliest President WoodrowWilson signed the After the Civil War, preservation laws in the U.S. act which created the National Park federal legislation protected the land itself, Service as a new federal bureau4. began to focus on like the designation of The Service was mandated to protecting sites deemed Yellowstone National Park by "conserve the scenery and the important to the President Ulysses S. Grant2. natural and historic objects and nation's history, like Then the Antiquities Act of wildlife therein"4. In later years, battlefields and 1906 gave presidents the power the management of national monuments cemeteries2. to create National Monuments2. and military sites was transferred Protecting old and scenic to the Service, and it became the places was starting to be seen federal agency in charge of areas of as an important government and national historic, scenic, and A public issue. scientific importance4. CLOSER LOOK ...
The early foundations of U.S. historic and scenic preservation policy failed to protect Indigenous histories. The creation of the National Park System was made possible by federal Indian removal policy that displaced Indigenous Americans.
uwe're implicated in the landscape, and the landscape is implicated and changed by our presence on it. There's this idea that that sort of natural state of nature is somehownot human. When, in fact, everything that we think of as being sort of unique about the American landscape-the virgin forests of the Northeast, these towering trees where you enter the forest and you don t see daylight, because the canopy is so complete-those forests were shaped by Native tribes for centuries before Europeans got here" -David Truer 2021, Ojibwe historian and writer1 1
United States
Preservation
_,_ --- - ---
.
URBAN RENEWAL 1949 1974 1966 ,,,_ _____________________________ HOUSING ACT OF 1949
Policy:
Part 2 ~
NATIONAL HISTORIC PRESERVATION ACT OF 1966
The Housing Act of 1949 was created to eliminate poor housing conditions by funding the clearance of blighted areas and providing public housing. It's important to note that many "blighted areas" were overcrowded and under-resourced largely due to forms of stateenabled urban segregation like redlining, racially restrictive covenants, and Jim Crow lawsG. In reality, the Housing Act started a period of urban renewal where neighborhoods of color were acquired by cities through eminent domain, their historic fabric was demolished, and then they were rebuilt by private developers. Federal urban renewal efforts "constituted one of the most sweeping and systematic instances of the modern destruction of Black property, neighborhoods, culture, community, businesses, and homes"G.
The National Historic Preservation Act, signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson, standardized the federal government's role in historic preservation. The Act created the National Register of Historic Places (managed by the National Park Service) and opened preservation offices in all fifty states2. Section 10l(d)(2) of this act allows a Tribe to assume the functions of a State Historic Preservation Officer. Now, historic preservation is an influential and legally-significant part of urban planning, real estate development, and government budgeting. However, the federal standards in the Act were written with biases that center white history: as of 2020, "of the more than 95,000 entries on the National Register of Historic Places, only 2% focus on the experiences of black Americans"2.
THE IMPORTANCE OF PLACE ... "There is nothing ... that I can show my grandchildren and great grandchildren that was part of my past. Nothing at all" Grady Abrams, displaced from the Five Points neighborhood in Augusta, Georgia6.
uThe fullest expressions of identity and citizenship rest on the most intimate foundations-the spaces of home and community through which our lives take on meaning, a neighborhood to which we might return, memories created and that come rushing back. Returning to such spaces enables us to rediscover our roots, collapsing, for a moment, the distance between past and present. Urban renewal robbed generations of these formative spaces-and much more besidesn Brent Cebul6.
How does historic
preservation
breed racism and inequity?
G-ENTRlFIGATIOH The designation of local historic districts and preservation tax credit projects are often associated with an increase in household income and housing costs in a neighborhood3. The perception among minority communities about these typical historic preservation activities is that neighborhoods will become less diverse and less affordable3.Because preservation projects often center white history and benefit white property owners, the association with gentrification is enough to warrant attention to possible inequitable outcomes3.
£SOU
Little
Manila: Rememberedand Rising
In the early 1900s, a generation of young Filipinos moved to the United States to workg. Many from this Manong/Manang Generation landed in Stockton, California, worked on farms, and constituted Uthe largest population of Filipinos in the world outside the Philippines from the 1920s to the 1960s"g, Stockton's Main Street racially divided the town's white northern section from the diverse south9. South of Main Street, the Manongs established flourishing businesses and organizations, creating what became known as Little Manila10. Here, Filipino-American labor leaders like Larry Itliong fought farmworker injustice and created an important action base from which the United Farm Workers movement and Union g rew9,10. In 1969, sections of Little Manila were demolished to build the Crosstown Freewayg. After continued demolition in the area, Dawn Mabalon and Dillon Delvo founded Little Manila Rising in 1999 to save the few remaining historic buildings in Little Manilag. In 2002,the City of Stockton named the area a commercial redevelopment zoneg. The redevelopment plan would demolish blocks of homes, businesses, churches, and historic buildings to build an Asian-themed strip mallg. A swift response from Little Manila activists helped designsate Little Manila one of the eleven most endangered sites in America by the National Trust for Historic Preservation and proposed an alternate development plan to the Cityg. These actions resulted in the City abandoning redevelopment of the area, which Little Manila Rising saw as a victoryg. The case of Little Manila shows the extra work communities of color and low-income communities must do to survive - to fight complete destruction and municipal neglect. Little Manila Rising continues to honor Stockton's history and to address goverment underfunding through their program, which aim to embrace diversity as an asset and strive for "multi-faceted equity"g For the full story, read Little Manila Is in the Heart: The Making of the Filipina/o American Community in Stockton, California by Dawn Bohulano Mabalon or visit littlemanila.org
This
zine
caused
primarily
by U.S.
addresses
the
preservation
harm
policy
on
people of color and does not encompass the many ways engaged
in
themselves. efforts,
communities historic
of
color
have
preservation
For more information
on those
I encourage readers to follow the
work of the following
organizations:
BLACK IN HISTORIC PI\ESERVATION
blackinhistpres.com ASIAN AND PACIFIC ISLANDER AMERICANS IN HISTORIC PRESERVATION
apiahip.org LATINOS IN HERITAGE CONSERVATION
latinoheritage.us
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Photo by Frank Manaco via The Filipino
American National Historical
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Society
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