Conserving Land and History in Alabama’s Black Belt

I was proud to be part of the documentary “54 Miles to Home” in collaboration with representatives of the Hall, Steele and Gardner families and Southern Exposure Films. Two more documentaries are in the works, including one with Alabama Public Television about Arthur Shores, a Black attorney and Civil Rights activist in Alabama, and a second film with Southern Exposure Films will examine the contributions of Marion, Alabama and its residents to the Civil Rights movement.

The approaching 60th anniversary of the historic Selma to Montgomery march is reinvigorating efforts to better preserve places like the campsites and other important Civil Rights landmarks. In partnership with the City of Montgomery, The Conservation Fund convened a meeting in the summer of 2022 to discuss the region’s collective historic preservation goals. Participants included the mayors of Montgomery, Selma, Marion and White Hall, as well as representatives from The Conservation Fund, federal officials and stakeholders from historic Civil Rights sites in neighboring Black Belt counties. We look forward to working with the City and County councils of Montgomery, Selma and Marion, and the Lowndes County Mayor’s Council, to continue driving this collective conversation.

Building on this momentum, last year we were awarded a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)’s Rural Placemaking Innovation Challenge (RPIC) to help protect important Civil Rights sites in central Alabama while pursuing a variety of related, community-focused goals specifically in Perry, Dallas and Lowndes counties, along with the cities of Selma, Marion and White Hall.

Over the next two years, we will be working with a coalition of diverse partners and stakeholders to craft and implement a plan to better protect and interpret the regions natural assets and historic places that played critical role in the Civil Rights movement and American history. The goals of the coalition include identifying at-risk cultural, historic and ecological sites, and outlining a plan to protect and revitalize those sites for the economic benefit of these rural Black Belt communities. We will also help communities build economic, social and cultural vitality by improving blighted structures, supporting community heritage, arts and culture, along with fostering greenspaces and trails. Where lack of communication and competition for resources may once have hindered cooperation, we’re working to strengthen connections between the organizational partners and to create and advance a shared vision.

We recently conducted our first working session with community members, local, state and federal partners at the historic Tabernacle Baptist Church in Selma, Alabama. Notably, this church was the site of the first mass meeting of the Selma Voting Rights Movement in 1963, and the church’s current membership still includes residents who participated in the iconic march. Several of these “Selma Foot Soldiers” attended our working group meeting, along with representatives from other historic sites across the region — places like the Lincoln Normal School and the Old Cahawba Road to Freedom Wagon Trail. Participants also included State Representative Robert Stewart, Marion Mayor Dexter Hinton, and Selma Councilmember Clay Carmichael, as well as leadership from the National Park Service, USDA Rural Development Authority, and the Alabama African American Civil Rights Heritage Sites Consortium, among others.