This post is part of our blog series “Scholars Speak,” which features writing from our 2024 cohort of Preservation Scholars. Click the link to learn more about this donor-funded program that aims to increase the diversity of voices in the Texas historical narrative by placing students from underrepresented cultural and ethnic backgrounds in paid, 10-week long summer internship positions at the Texas Historical Commission.
Scholars Speak: The Influence of Personal Heritage on the Bigger Picture
The story of my childhood unfolded against a backdrop of pine trees and highways in the heart of Lansing, Michigan. My name is Gavin, and I grew up on the south side of Lansing with my family in an apartment about 200 yards away from the highway that separates the city from the suburbs. At times, ten people lived and slept in the two-bedroom apartment off Georgetown Blvd. The neighborhood has since changed. Once full of African Americans, Cubans, and immigrants fresh to the United States, the diverse neighborhood that raised me has all but disappeared. Thirty years later, the low-income people have been pushed out, and now generic townhomes, where no one even knows each other, stand where once my community thrived.
As a student, I like to think about neighborhoods like the one I grew up in. This has brought me to Austin to study community and regional planning at the University of Texas and learn the importance of understanding Black neighborhoods and what makes them different from other places. Black space is an integral part of history, and the communities that developed in and around these spaces and should be studied and preserved so African Americans can always find a place to call home and can connect with their histories. Working with the Texas Historical Commission (THC) on the Green Book Project has helped me grow my knowledge of the vastness of historical Black space across the United States and how uniquely different it is. As I think about a career in affordable housing, I want to draw on my personal history to help me build spaces where people can live safely, affordably, and within communities that feel like family.
Working with the THC this summer has helped me become a better preservationist, develop new research skills, and gain insight about the status of historical preservation of Black communities and spaces. Now, I have a deeper understanding of my community’s needs when considering how to record and preserve our history, and I want to help preserve Black communities around our country. My internship research project this summer focused on the Greenbook locations within the city of Waco and the African American community in Waco overall. This work has drawn me to consider other cities around our country that need the same level of research for us to find the African American story and illuminate it for others to see. Blending my dedication to affordable housing and historic preservation may be a challenge, but I’m looking forward to discovering what might be possible.