Programs & Initiatives: AFAM Trail

www.africanamericantrail.org
email: info@africanamericantrail.org

Our mission is to identify, preserve, share and celebrate our African American heritage in the Upper Housatonic Valley, through the creation of a heritage trail and related interpretive materials.

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We support:

• the protection of heritage sites in the area;
• the collection, compilation and preservation of historical materials;
• educational initiatives and related curricula.
  

The project brings together the efforts over many years by a diverse group of local scholars, historians, educators and community leaders to identify, preserve and share the area's rich African American heritage. In the making is heritage trail guide that recognizes African-Americans of national and international significance, while illuminating distinctly local people, places and events that reflect national trends. The guide tells the stories of these people, some of the places they lived and died and, events that reveal their courage and determination in the face of adversity to fully participate in all aspects of American society.

In addition to the heritage trail and guidebook, the Advisory Board has undertaken:

• to develop an African-American Educators Network of college, high school, and elementary/middle school educators to incorporate guide materials in local school curricula;
• to compile a bibliography of regional sources; 
• to build upon the Berkshire Historical Society's Invisible Community oral history project and document the largely unwritten local history of African-Americans in the region
• to support emerging African American heritage centers including a center at the Col. Ashley House in Sheffield to study Elizabeth 'Mumbet' Freeman and other South Berkshire County African-Americans; the Samuel Harrison House (Chaplain of the Massachusetts 54th Regiment) in Pittsfield; and the W. E. B. DuBois Boyhood Homesite in Great Barrington
  

Ultimately, the goal is to create a physical trail that interprets and visualizes the heritage themes that tell the story of African-Americans in the Upper Housatonic Valley. The trail and the sites it showcases will become vehicles for educational initiatives and for a fully developed program of heritage tourism-lecture series and publications on specific themes, audio tours, a web site, and signage and other amenities for on-site interpretation.

The African American Heritage trail (AAHT) encompasses 29 Massachusetts and Connecticut towns in the Upper Housatonic Valley National Heritage Area, and celebrates African Americans in the region who played pivotal roles in key national and international events, as well as ordinary people of achievement. Among the key forty-eight sites along the trail are the W. E. B. Du Bois Boyhood Homesite, a National Landmark property in Great Barrington; and the Samuel Harrison House in Pittsfield, home of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment chaplain who protested discriminatory pay practices.

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One Minute A Free Woman
Elizabeth Freeman and the Struggle For Freedom

Paperback, 272 pages, 50 illustrations, chapter endnotes, index.
Published by the Upper Housatonic Valley National Heritage Area /African American Heritage Trail, 2010,
ISBN: 978-0-9845492-0-7. For more information: www.AfricanAmericanTrail.org

African American Heritage in the Upper Housatonic Valley

Tucked away in western Massachusetts and northwestern Connecticut is a treasured place. Bound on the east by the Berkshire Hills and on the west by the Taconic Range, the Housatonic River gives it life. This place has played a pivotal role in the political, religious, industrial, and cultural history of the region and the nation. What has largely gone unrecognized until now is a rich history of African Americans who played pivotal roles in key national and international events and made significant contributions to our culture. African American Heritage in the Upper Housatonic Valley presents this great heritage, telling the stories of the Black luminaries who have lived in the area—W.E. B. DuBois, James Weldon Johnson, to name but a few—and detailing the life and times of the many ordinary yet extraordinary African Americans who have made their mark in the region from the 1700s to the present. The book is a guide to the people and places along the Upper Housatonic Valley African American Heritage Trail, encompassing twenty-nine Massachusetts and Connecticut towns in the Upper Housatonic Valley National Heritage Area.

Key Features

• 67 Articles on Business and Professional Life, Civil Rights and Social Action, Education, Military Service, Religion, and Society, Arts and Ideas 
• 120 Photos and Illustrations
• 8 Original Maps
• 35 Primary Text Sidebars
• Timeline of Regional African American History
• Directory of Local and regional Resources
• Trail Guides to 14 Communities  
• Massachusetts Communities: Gulf Road/Wizard’s Glen, Pittsfield, Lenox, Lee, Stockbridge, Great Barrington, Sheffield
• Northwest Connecticut Communities: Salisbury, Norfolk [Canaan], Sharon, Cornwall, Kent, Warren, Barkhamsted Lighthouse