A Planning Lesson: Addressing Racism and Inequity in Historic Preservation

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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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