Interpreting African American History and Culture at Museums and Historic Sites

Max A. van Balgooy is president of Engaging Places LLC, a design and strategy firm that connects people and historic places. He works with a wide range of historic sites on interpretive planning and business strategy, from Drayton Hall to Taliesin West. These experiences provide a rich source of ideas for EngagingPlaces.net, where he blogs regularly about the opportunities and challenges facing historic sites and house museums. He serves on the AASLH Council and teaches in the museum studies program at George Washington University, and received his degrees in history from Pomona College and the University of Delaware (Hagley Fellow).

• Foreword by Lonnie G. Bunch, IIIAcknowledgmentsIntroductionChapter 1: Pride and Prejudice: Interpreting Slavery at the Homes of Five Founding Fathers, Amanda SeymourChapter 2: Developing Comprehensive and Conscientious Interpretation of Slavery at Historic Sites and Museums, Kristin L. Gallas and James DeWolf PerryChapter 3: Interpreting Difficult Knowledge, Julia RoseChapter 4: Expanding Interpretation at Historic Sites: When Change Brings Conflict, David W. YoungChapter 5: There is a Doctor in the House--and he's Black, Michelle L. McClellanChapter 6: Finding Sarah Bickford, William PetersonChapter 7: Documenting Local African American Community History, Lila Teresa ChurchChapter 8: Interpreting the Upper-Ground Railroad, Matthew PinskerChapter 9: Churches as Places of History: The Case of Nineteenth Century Charleston, South Carolina, Bernard E. Powers, Jr.Chapter 10: Imagining Slave Square: Resurrecting History through Cemetery Research and Interpretation, D L HendersonChapter 11: Furnishing Slave Quarters and Free Black Homes: Adding a Powerful Tool to Interpreting African American Life, Martha B. Katz-HymanChapter 12: Six Degrees of Separation: Using Social Media and Digital Platforms to Enhance African American History Projects, Lynn RainvilleChapter 13: Asking Big Questions of a Small Place, George W. McDanielChapter 14: Power in Limits: Narrow Frames Open Up African American Public History, Benjamin FileneChapter 15: Connecting Students with Community History, Stacia KuceyeskiChapter 16: Do You Have What it Takes to be a Freedom Fighter?, Andrea K. JonesChapter 17: Preserving Los Angeles’ African American Historic Places, Jenny Scanlin and Teresa GrimesChapter 18: More Than Just a Building: Interpreting the Legacy of the Frederick Douglass Elementary School, Wendi Manuel-Scott and Sara Howard-O’BrienChapter 19: Soul Soldiers: Giving Voice to Vietnam’s Veterans, Robbie DavisChapter 20: Making African American History Relevant through Co-Creation and Community Service Learning, Robert Connolly and Ana M. ReaChapter 21: The Scottsboro Boys Museum: University-Community Collaboration Yields Unanticipated Results, Ellen Griffith Spears and Shelia WashingtonSelected Bibliography on the Interpretation of African American History and Culture National OrganizationsIndexAbout the Author and Contributors

Interpreting African-American history at historic sites is an essential but often complicated task. This timely and important volume seeks to improve and suggest successful plans for historical interpretation, and contains nearly two dozen essays spanning from the colonial period to the 21st century. It embraces a myriad of research methods and strategies for interpretation, including the use of social media, archival and documentary research, outreach programmes as well as instructing interpreters how to manage conflict and difficult questions. . . .This volume offers a rich and interesting insight into the world of public history. . . .[and] provides an engaging and fascinating account of how African-American history is interpreted today. Historical interpreters have an opportunity to explore, ask questions, dig deeper and engage an audience whilst navigating the tensions of American history. This volume celebrates contributions and successes, but we need to recognise that many historic sites have much to improve when confronting the legacy of slavery.