Civil Rights and Black History Sites

Civil Rights and Black History Sites

WLA Studio has always worked to tell the whole story. Our preservation projects include many sites and cultural landscapes with stories linked the the experiences of groups who are not fully represented in traditional historical narratives. From Historic Mitchelville Freedom Park — “Where Freedom Began” — to the Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail, our projects tell the story of African American communities throughout the United States. The following projects represent a few of the many civil rights and Black history sites that our team has documented.

Historic Mitchelville Freedom Park Master Plan • Hilton Head Island, South Carolina

WLA Studio with Proun Design and the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience developed a Master Plan for Historic Mitchelville Freedom Park located on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. WLA Studio and Proun Design continue to consult with the client to implement the master plan.

Established in 1862, Mitchelville became the first self-governed town of the formerly enslaved in the United States. An “experiment in citizenship” and a “model for reconstruction,” historic Mitchelville succeeded, yet virtually faded from history. Today Mitchelville is being rediscovered, not only because of its historical significance, but also because its story resounds as an inspiring and relevant chapter in America’s continuing quest to become a truly just society. The client envisions that Historic Mitchelville Freedom Park will become: “An imaginative and exciting place that celebrates the American spirit through the telling of the story of the first freedman’s town in America; and that informs and strengthens the fabric of our shared American heritage.”

King Family Home Historic Structure Report and Cultural Landscape Report • Atlanta, Georgia

WLA Studio led two projects to guide preservation of the King Family Home, located in Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historical Park. WLA Studio produced a Cultural Landscape Report for the King Family Home, which was the residence of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King’s family beginning in 1965. The house served not only as a residence for the King Family but also as an office for for the King Center and a meeting place for civil rights leaders. Coretta Scott King lived in the house until 2004. Under Mrs. King’s care, many of the original features of the house and landscape were preserved for future generations. Our team also produced a Historic Structure Report to guide rehabilitation of the house with assistance from the NPS’s Historic Preservation Training Center and Historic American Buildings Survey.

A.G. Gaston Motel Cultural Landscape Report • Birmingham Alabama

WLA Studio completed a Cultural Landscape Report for the A.G. Gaston Motel site, an important landmark within Birmingham’s Civil Rights District. Named for the motel’s owner and developer, A.G. Gaston, the motel is an icon of the Civil Rights Movement. Constructed in 1954, the A.G. Gaston Motel offered accommodations to African Americans, who were not allowed in most lodging facilities in the segregated city. During Birmingham’s civil rights movement, the motel’s courtyard served as the location for daily strategy sessions, as well as the news conferences the movement’s leaders held throughout the campaign. Other notable events related to the civil rights movement included the motel’s use as the starting point for the first march of the campaign and serving as host to the 1963 announcement of the Birmingham Compromise, which was instrumental in the passage of the national Civil Rights Act of 1964.  In 2017, an approximate four-block area within the National Register district became the Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument and includes the A.G. Gaston Motel. The report identified the site’s character-defining features and made recommendations for treatment of the historic landscape to allow future interpretation at the site.

Additional Project List

Cultural Landscape Report and Historic Structure Report, Camp Nelson National Monument • Cultural Landscape Report, Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail • Cultural Landscape Report, Historic Structures Reports, & Title One & Title Two Design Services Moton Field: Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site • Rockefeller Fine Arts Center Site and Cultural Landscape Analysis, Spelman College • McLeod Plantation Conservation and Development Plan and Construction Documents, Charleston County, South Carolina • Historic Structure Reports, Various Buildings, Birth Home Block, Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historical Park • Cultural Landscape Report & Cultural Landscape Inventory, The Oaks, Home of Booker T. and Mary Margaret Washington, Tuskegee Institute National Historic Site • Master Plan Trinity Baptist Church, Williams, and North View Cemetery, Florence, South Carolina • St. James Baptist Church Cemetery Preservation Plan, Athens, Georgia • National Register Nomination, Israel Lafayette Jones Property, Biscayne National Park • Campus Heritage Plan, Bennett College • Campus Heritage Plan, Clark Atlanta University • Campus Heritage Plan, Dillard University • Campus Heritage Plan, Fort Valley State University • Campus Heritage Plan, Spelman College • Campus Heritage Plan, Tuskegee University • Gospel Pilgrim Cemetery Master Plan, Athens, Georgia • Charlotte Hawkins Brown Historic Site Master Plan, Sedalia, North Carolina • Caw Caw Interpretive Center Master Plan, Charleston County, South Carolina • Master Plan & Cultural Landscape Report Historical Battlefields Parks at Folly Island and Morris Island, Charleston County, South Carolina • Master Plan Darlington Memorial Cemetery Association, Darlington, South Carolina • Master Site Plan & Promotional Materials Beulah Rucker Museum, Gainesville, Georgia