Since the early twenty-first century, Oberlin Village, a historically African American neighborhood in Raleigh, North Carolina, USA has been a center for interdisciplinary and community-driven initiatives that exemplify the varied methods and standpoints of present heritage scholarship and activism. Led by the Friends of Oberlin Village, a community organization founded by descendants in 2011, and involving academics, local citizens, and governmental partners, these award-winning initiatives have resulted in a diverse range of programs, products, and publications. Examples of these public history efforts include, designating Oberlin Village as a local Historic Overlay District, listing Oberlin Cemetery on the US National Register of Historic Places, implementing educational programs, and planning and installing public art. In this paper, we discuss political, social, and intellectual practices and processes that have contributed to the successes and challenges in Oberlin Village public history work. We argue Oberlin Village initiatives have used a heritage framework to contribute to conversations and efforts related to broader issues of racial justice, city planning, civic engagement, historic preservation, and social change in the surrounding cultural landscape. For example, local commercial and educational institutions previously named for problematic historical figures who engaged in racist actions have been renamed following significant debates about public memory and the legacies of historical racism. Through such examples, we demonstrate that Oberlin Village heritage projects are a powerful model for collaborative historical and anthropological research, education, community engagement and political activism, and historic preservation.
Alicia McGill is an Associate Professor in the Department of History and Coordinator for the Self-Design undergraduate major at North Carolina State University. She has research, teaching, and service expertise in critical heritage studies; public history; historic preservation; community-based research; education; and African American, Caribbean, and Latin American history. McGill teaches courses in cultural heritage, cultural resource management, ancient culture and history in Latin America, myths and misconceptions about history and archaeology, and service learning.
Dru McGill is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at North Carolina State University. He is a North American archaeologist who specializes in the study of late pre-Columbian Native American societies, ceramic analysis, material culture, and research and service on the topic of applied ethics. He is a leader in an interdisciplinary community-driven project aimed at documenting and preserving African American heritage sites in Raleigh, North Carolina. He also is co-Principal Investigator of a US National Science Foundation-funded project assessing case study debates as a professional ethics training tool in archaeology and other scientific disciplines.