The Mount Vernon 20th Century African American Civil Rights Historic Preservation plan is distinct in Westchester County. This ground-breaking document has relied on decades of local and African American history research that spanned one hundred years of perpetual resistance to disrespect and discrimination against the inherent humanity of residents of color. The sacrificial hard work of the special project team committed to studying the question about how and why Mount Vernon became the only municipality in New York to enter the 21st Century with African Americans empowered to shape and chart its progressive present and future.
Larry Spruill, PhD, retired American History Professor and former long-serving local historian conceived of the plan of action and guided its production from beginning to end. Teaming with the diligence of preservation advocates Steve Tilly, architectural historian and staff, Leslie Alpert, project digital researcher and Jeffrey Watkins, documentary filmmaker the plan came to life. They gave their best to the project with city's inadequate infrastructure and limited financial resources. This will be Mount Vernon's first completed preservation plan and ordinance. The project enabled and expanded varied levels of public participation and engagement.
The project informally began in October 2020 to October 2021, first gathering voluminous archival data related to the ten decades of African American protracted resistance and protest against segregation, discrimination and inequality. Simultaneously, project staff attempted to gather data from cost effective examples of similar suburban historical preservation plans, ordinances and designs in the region and nation. The initial search was unsuccessful primarily because of the content theme and timeline: the one hundred year path of African American migrants from poverty and powerlessness to prosperity to municipal empowerment. The team discovered that Mount Vernon’s historical character was unique and profoundly shaped by the socio-economic and political barriers in African Americans quest for the “American Dream.”
This Mount Vernon and National Parks Service (NPS) African American 20th century Civil Rights Grant provided seed funds a historical and preservation study resulting in legislative designation of select organizations, religious institutions, structures, street corridors, protest leaders and foot soldiers that formed the core of the resistance movement against segregation, systemic racism and powerlessness. By the year 2000, the century-long campaign for racial integration and social justice concluded in attainment of political self-determination and African American empowerment.
The study’s geographic focus was the city’s predominantly African American Southwest Sector neighborhoods. They were the social and political center for ten-decades of confrontations for freedom and access to the “American Dream.” The researchers identified multiple institution forgotten personalities, events, and sites worthy of recognition, interpretation and public memory. Project staff created a civil rights district with historic sites based on archival documents and verified oral histories that authenticated protracted resistance movements against discrimination in housing, employment, education, voting rights, public accommodations, justice and power sharing. The post-project illustrated historical site markers with QR Codes, digital self-guided tour booklet, short documentary film and downtown museum-styled exhibition about the civil rights historic sites and trail formed a comprehensive historical plan, preservation ordinance and design strategy to better inform citizens, officials, policymakers and business leaders in the present and future as to how 21st century Mount Vernon became New York’s most unique majority of minority city. It encourages the city to consider the economic and commercial incentives to redesign its central city and main street corridors through heritage tourism.