Shows
Black Preservation Stories(S2E2) Out of the Shadows: Althemese Barnes, the Riley House Museum, and FAAHPNBGHPN continues Season 2 with a special feature on preservationist Althemese Pemberton Barnes, whose work reshaped how Tallahassee, Florida, remembers its past. In 1987, through grassroots organizing and public advocacy, Barnes helped lead the restoration of Greenwood Cemetery, the city’s historic African American burial ground.
That effort soon extended to another endangered landmark: the Riley House, built in 1890 as the home of educator and civic leader John Gilmore Riley. When the house faced demolition in the 1990s, Barnes helped mobilize community support to save it. In 1996, the home reopened as the John G. Riley Center & Museum (@johnrileycenter), preserving an...
2026-03-1058 minBlack Preservation Stories(S2E1) In Every Shade of Brown: The National Black Doll Museum of History & CultureWhat is lost when people treat dolls as toys rather than artifacts-and what becomes possible when they are interpreted as material culture?
The National Black Doll Museum of History & Culture (Attleboro, MA), founded in 2012 by sisters Debra Britt, Felicia Walker, and Tamara Mattinson, began as a family collecting practice and grew 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.
From the legacy of the 1940s Clark doll tests to the 2008 National Black Doll Convention, the traveling Doll-E-Daze Project, African Wrap...
2026-02-1801 minBlack Preservation Stories(S1E9) We’re Still Here: Defend Glendale & Public Housing CoalitionIn 1952, Glendale Townhomes became one of Minneapolis’s first public housing communities—home to Black Americans, East African and Hmong immigrants, refugees, students, and working-class families. Decades later, as city officials sought to privatize or demolish its 184 units, residents organized the Defend Glendale & Public Housing Coalition, transforming a threat of displacement into a movement for dignity, equity, and the right to stay, and redefining preservation itself—not only as saving buildings, but as protecting people, memories, and community life.
bghpn.org / dgphc.org
2025-11-0655 minBlack Preservation Stories(S1E8) Trials by Fire: The Scottsboro Boys MusemIn 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.
In this episode, Executive Director Dr. Tom Reidy joins us to reflect on Washington’s impact, the museum’s role in healing and reconciliation, and the ongoing work of carrying...
2025-08-2549 minBlack Preservation Stories(S1E7) We Just Wanted to Be Free: The Safe House Black History MuseumHow do faith, dignity, self-respect, and inter generational land stewardship inform both survival and freedom?
In celebration of Black August and the 60th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act, this episode focuses on the Safe House Black History Museum in Greensboro, AL.
In Greensboro, AL, stands a house that once shielded Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. from the deadly threats of the Ku Klux Klan on March 21st, 1968, two weeks before his assassination in Memphis, Tennessee. Today, the Safe House Black History Museums honors the everyday foot soldiers of the movement and their sacrifices in...
2025-08-0642 minBlack Preservation Stories(S1E6) Freedom Was the Curriculum: 163 Years of the Penn CenterHow has the Penn Center functioned as a hub for Black freedom and cultural preservation for over 160 years?
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. Today, it remains a vital force for cultural preservation and land retention in the Gullah Geechee corridor.
In this episode, Executive Director Dr. Robert Adams discusses the modern threats and challenges to the center and St. Helena Island, and how the Center is using traditional education and mutual aid to...
2025-08-0149 minBlack Preservation Stories(S1E5) On Sacred Ground: The Gullah/Geechee Cultural Community TrustWhat does it mean to sustain a living culture and a community still fighting for recognition, where even the burial grounds are contested, and challenging development means standing for both the dead and the living?
Founder and Executive Director Glenda Simmons-Jenkins and Operations Officer Kathy Carswell join Black Preservation Stories to discuss Gullah/Geechee heritage, 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.
bghpn.org / gullahcommunitytrust.org
2025-08-011h 06Black Preservation Stories(S1E4) 12 Million Souls: The Middle Passage Ceremonies and Port Markers ProjectThis episode centers on the Middle Passage Ceremonies and Port Markers Project, based in Jacksonville, Florida. Founded in 2011, the project honors the memory of two million Africans who perished during the transatlantic crossing and the ten million who survived to shape the Americas—through the placement of historical markers and public ceremonies of remembrance across the United States.
Founder and Program Director Ann Chinn joins me for a conversation about how her spiritual experiences in Brazil and encounters with African diasporic traditions helped shape her path. We discuss Indigenous-Afrodescendant relationships, the emotional and spiritual labor of stewarding me...
2025-07-1656 min
Black Preservation Stories(S1E3) Preservation for the People: Friends of the Tanner HouseOn this episode of Black Preservation Stories, we focus on Friends of the Tanner House in Philadelphia, who, since December 2021, have rallied to save the childhood home of artist Henry Ossawa Tanner, known for The Banjo Lesson and The Thankful Poor. In 2023, they launched a community-driven visioning process for restoration, programming, and stewardship to transform the house into a vibrant cultural center. Co-coordinator Christopher Rogers joins me to trace their journey—from grassroots coalition to nonprofit, from initial stabilization to plans for exhibitions, workshops, and public events—and explore how centering people over policy can spark intergenerational connections. Join us a...
2025-05-1538 minBlack Preservation Stories(S1E2) A Promised Land: Mound Bayou Museum of African-American Culture and HistoryOn this episode of Black Preservation Stories, we visit the Mound Bayou Museum of African American Culture and History in Mound Bayou, Mississippi—known as the “Jewel of the Delta” and the oldest all-Black municipality in the U.S., founded in 1887 by formerly enslaved visionaries Isaiah T. Montgomery and Benjamin T. Green. The museum's mission is to honor traditions of self-governance, mutual aid, and resilience. Co-founders Darryl and Herman Johnson Jr. discuss Dr. T.R.M. Howard’s civil-rights organizing, Emmett Till’s ties to the town, the 1982 caravan that saved the community, landmark institutions like Taborian Hospital and the Delta...
2025-05-1548 minBlack Preservation Stories(S1E1) Against the Tide: The Bellevue Passage MuseumThis episode of Black Preservation Stories focuses on the developing Bellevue Passage Museum, in Bellevue, Maryland, one of the last historically black maritime communities on the Eastern shore, as developers proposed 14 multi-million dollar waterfront homes that threatened to erase Bellevue. The museum's founders race to protect its working-class and communal legacy. Dr. Dennis De Shields and his daughter Kat De Shields Moon, co-founder and program director, join us to discuss returning to Bellevue in adulthood, confronting zoning battles, leveraging technology, and crafting programs that merge historic preservation with community revitalization. Join us as we explore the question: What does...
2025-05-1457 min