'A shrine of liberty for the unborn generations': African American clubwomen and the preservation of African American historic sites

In 1916, the National Association of Colored Women (NACW) partnered with the Frederick Douglass Memorial and Historical Association (FDMHA) to raise funds to preserve Frederick Douglass's home, Cedar Hill. Two years later, the FDMHA ceded all board positions to the NACW and the preservation of Cedar Hill became a permanent part of the NACW's national program for almost fifty years. Inspired by the NACW's actions, the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) continued the tradition of preserving African American historic sites. This dissertation maintains that there was a distinct preservation movement among black women that was parallel to, but different from, white women's preservation work.;Using the records of the NACW, FDMHA, and NCNW, and clubwomen such as Nannie Helen Burroughs and Mary E.C. Gregory, this work reveals that black clubwomen's projects were not anomalies but were sustained efforts to preserve African American historic sites. First, this dissertation places black clubwomen's preservation activities in the South within the general narrative of the historic preservation movement of the early twentieth century. Second, it contends that their preservation activities were political, a part of their racial uplift strategy. These activities were an outgrowth of their attempt to use history-making activities to construct a positive identity for black and white consumption. Third, this study connects the nationalistic ideas and memory work of the NACW to history-making and historic preservation activities between 1916 and 1965. Fourth, it examines the NCNW's efforts to preserve the Bethune Council House, noting the effects of the American Revolution's bicentennial and the black cultural renaissance of the 1960s and 1970s. Fifth, this work reveals the role of the federal government, the National Park Service, in working with black clubwomen to preserve African American built heritage. Finally, this dissertation uses one case study, the Jackson Community House in Montgomery, Alabama, to explore the continuity of black clubwomen's preservation ethic on the local level.;The dissertation contributes to the scholarship on women and historic preservation, particularly the preservation work of African American clubwomen. Their preservation work played a pivotal role in preserving the legacy of African Americans through historic sites.