World Heritage Initiative Department of History Atlanta, Georgia

Hopewell Nomination Moves Forward, International Recognition for Africatown Register for the Symposium April 21-22

The National Park Service has announced its nomination of the Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks for potential inscription on the World Heritage List. Comprised of three separate properties consisting of eight archeological sites in southern Ohio, the earthworks bear witness to the Middle Woodland Indian culture of two thousand years ago and feature geometrically concise circles, squares, and octagons positioned precisely according to various cycles of the sun and moon. Prepared by Jennifer Aultman, Todd Klesmit, and others at the Ohio History Connection, the Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks nomination will be evaluated first by the International Council on Monuments and Sites over 2023 and then by the World Heritage Committee at its annual meeting in 2024.

Africatown on World Monuments Watch List

To emphasize its significance and generate support, the World Monuments Fund placed Africatown, Alabama, on its 2022 World Monuments Watch List. The last enslaved Africans smuggled into the United States arrived aboard the Clotilda in Mobile Bay. With emancipation, thirty-two of them founded Africatown located not far from the landing site of the recently-discovered sunken ship that had brought them to America. In 2018 the Alabama native and African American Folklorist Zora Neale Hurston’s 1927 interviews with the last headman of Africatown, Cudjo Lewis, saw publication as Barracoon: The Story of the Last ‘Black Cargo’. Efforts are underway to use these developments to assist the residents in strengthening Africatown through historic preservation and heritage tourism.    The World Monuments Fund’s interest in African American history is not new. In 2017, the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute nominated twenty Black heritage properties across Alabama to the World Monuments Watch List. Under Project Director Priscilla Hancock Cooper, the churches, residences, civic and business structures have coordinated their efforts through the Alabama African-American Civil Rights Heritage Sites Consortium.

Symposium Program All events held at the GSU College of Law, 85 Park Place NE, Atlanta, GA 30303

THURSDAY APRIL 21 5:00 pm - Opening Keynote Address Context is key: The Importance of Situating Civil Rights Sites in Movement History Hasan Kwame Jeffries, Department of History, Ohio State University 6:00-7:30 pm - Reception

FRIDAY APRIL 22 8:00 am – Coffee with Networking 9:00 am - Panel 1: Creative Marketing of Civil Rights Movement Sites 10:15 am - Panel 2: Planning and Funding Your Rehabilitation 11:30 am - Closing Keynote Address Preservation is Social Justice Brent Leggs, African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund, National Trust for Historic Preservation

More details on the other panel and keynote speaker coming soon!

Registration Register now for this free event on April 21-22, 2022. Please use the link below to email your name and organization. Symposium Registration Hotel Suggestion The Marriott Residence Inn Downtown is located just across Peachtree Street from the GSU Law School Auditorium. Hotel Reservations

COVID Update As an in-person event, the U. S. Civil Rights Movement Sites Symposium is monitoring all the latest COVID updates. Georgia State University is following the evolution of new variants of the virus and determining what appropriate protocols might need to be followed to keep the campus open safely. Consequently, attendees at the Symposium will be strongly encouraged to comply with the recommendations of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The GSU Law School Auditorium and downstairs lobby are large, open spaces that will allow for socially distanced seating, and the number of participants will not approach capacity for either. Nevertheless, GSU recommends attendees get vaccinated and wear a mask when appropriate. You can learn more about GSU's covid policy here.

Event Sponsors

This project is funded in part by: The African American Civil Rights program of the Historic Preservation Fund, National Park Service, Department of the Interior. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material do not constitute endorsement or necessarily reflect the views of the Department of the Interior or U.S. Government; and Grants from the African American Fund and the Southern Intervention Fund of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Questions? Comments?  Visit: worldheritage.gsu.edu. Project Director Glenn T. Eskew: gteskew@gsu.edu or 404.413.6354 Project Manager Anne H. Farrisee: afarrisee@gsu.edu or 404.413.6353