Fighting to Preserve Black History

 Years after congressional appropriations were made and public awareness has faded, Black college officials still are struggling to restore historic properties

TALLADEGA, Ala. — Ask Talladega College President Dr. Marguerite Archie-Hudson about historic-building renovations needed on her campus set here amidst the hills and valleys of this suburban Southern town and she recites a litany: Swayne, Foster and Andrews halls. DeForest Chapel. The president's house. The library.
Many of the Black college's historic buildings are on the National Register of Historic Places, or are eligible for inclusion. Fifteen are 100 years old or close to that.
"We could use $25 million easily to restore and preserve these buildings," she says.
And that's just a small part of the bigger picture. A few years ago, the Congressional Black Caucus asked the General Accounting Office to estimate the cost of restoring and preserving historically significant properties on historically Black college and university campuses. The resulting 1998 survey estimated that $755 million would be required for 712 properties. About half the properties were already on the National Register, while almost a third had been named eligible by state historic preservation officers.
Many of the schools had funds set aside to restore the buildings, but their reserves — $60 million — amounted to only a tiny fraction of the estimate.
Despite the sizable cost projection, Congress was not moved to provide much funding. It rejected a bill, supported by the Black Caucus, that would have authorized the $755 million. But Congress has appropriated nearly $21 million of $29 million it approved in 1996 for historic preservation at HBCUs.
Now, four years later, many of the buildings that hold invaluable Black history within their crumbling and aged walls still have yet to be restored. Officials say it's hard to raise the necessary money, and sometimes even more difficult to raise awareness of why efforts should be placed into restoring old buildings in the first place.
But, says Rep. James E. Clyburn, D-S.C., — often heralded as the biggest champion of historic building preservation on Black campuses — "many of the structures and sites on [HBCU] campuses are in jeopardy of being lost forever."