2023 Freetown DAT Report - Flipbook - Page 49
Freetown DAT
Exhibit A: Placemaking, Community-based
Tourism, & Heritage Trails
The report recommends downtown placemaking and
a heritage trail “Connecting Residents and Visitors to
Freetown’s History” as a way to both improve cultural
pride and awareness and to build the local economy.
By leveraging placemaking – a community-centered
approach to designing places that people want to live,
work, play and experience – Freetown can develop
meaningful urban experiences that are attractive
for both citizens and visitors. Arts and culture can
provide important glue to the social fabric and physical
framework of the city to connect the many communities
living and working in this corridor.
For more information on African Diaspora tourism, see
Otoo, Felix & Kim, Seongseop & King, Brian. (2021).
African Diaspora tourism - How motivations shape
experiences. Journal of Destination Marketing &
Management. 20. 100565. 10.1016/j.jdmm.2021.100565.
Alexandria, Virginia, USA Heritage Trail
Alexandria, Virginia provides one illustrative case that
demonstrates the economic power of linking historic
assets together in a community narrative, as well as
the impact of purposeful tourism marketing. Alexandria
was founded in 1749, and is known as the adopted
home town of the United States’ first President, George
Washington. He owned a home in Alexandria, and the
church and tavern he visited regularly still stand today
and can be visited by tourists. However, Alexandria
has focused recently on bringing life to the narrative
concerning the African-American experience in the
United States – with historic assets that speak to every
era of that history. The city has responded to growing
national interest in interacting with that history with
important shifts in how it promotes its identity and its
brand as a destination for tourists. First, it has invested
in preservation and explicit linkages of historic assets
that bring to life its community narrative. Second, it has
engaged in targeted promotions to the national AfricanAmerican tourism market raising awareness of its place
narrative and role in the collective American narrative
around slavery, freedom and the Civil Rights movement.
Lastly, it has invested in important public spaces,
connectivity, placemaking and public art that breathes
life into and connects people to place in important ways.
The result is a continuous experience of place that tells a
powerful story.
The place narrative is critical. As Visit Alexandria’s
website explains, “The prosperity of Alexandria and the
United States was inextricably linked to the work of
enslaved and free African Americans. A horrific part of
Alexandria’s history is that, prior to America’s Civil War,
Alexandria served as one of the largest domestic slave
trading ports in America. Most of Alexandria’s leading
businesses and properties could not have operated
without the unpaid labor of the enslaved men, women,
and children who lived and worked here. Yet to walk
through the streets of Alexandria is to walk through
America’s timeline of African-American history from
colonial times to the Civil War and from Civil Rights to
today. You can learn empowering stories of individuals
and communities that overcame adversity and even
pushed our society forward as you explore the city’s
historic sites and take part in walking tours.”
Today, Alexandria boasts an African-American Heritage
trail with signs installed throughout the city that links
together important historic locations, narratives and
events of the city’s history and evolution. They have also
built a full suite of online tools, including a Story Map,
a downloadable Heritage Trail map, and other tools to
guide virtual visitors through the city. As they describe
it, “We envision the African American Heritage Trail
as consisting of several interconnecting routes across
the City of Alexandria. Together, these trails illuminate
the history of the African American community over
a span of several centuries. This trail highlights the
contributions of Black Alexandrians, free and enslaved,
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to the history of Alexandria’s waterfront. We strive to
forefront their experiences while recognizing that their
voices are often not directly preserved in the historical
record.”
A sample of the experiences along the Alexandria
heritage trail include the following:
Historic Sites
• Boundary Stones. Upon its founding, Alexandria
was originally part of the city of Washington, DC.
When a surveying team that included AfricanAmerican Benjamin Banneker plotted the land for
the city, they laid several foundational boundary
stones that remain today. They are the oldest
federal monuments, dating back to 1790.
• The Freedom House Museum. This museum is
described in promotional language as “what
remains of a large complex dedicated to trafficking
thousands of Black men, women, and children from
1828 - 1861. Slavery, race-based laws, and racial
terror erased and diminished African American
history and contributions from the national
narrative. This Museum seeks to reframe white
supremacist history. This Museum honors the lives
and experiences of the enslaved and free Black
people who lived in and were trafficked through
Alexandria. We invite you to visit the museum to
learn, reflect, and advocate for change.”
• Zion Baptist Church. Established in 1864, this
historic church served an important role in the
African-American community and as an organizing
center for some of the earliest civil rights organizing
activity.
• Battery Rodgers. Battery Rodgers was one of
the 68 major forts and batteries that circled
Washington, D.C. during the Civil War. For part of
the war, Battery Rodgers was the station for the
United States Colored Troops (USCT), segregated
regiments of African Americans in the Union Army.
Historic Neighborhoods
• The Berg. During the Civil War, a large number of
self-emancipated slaves settled in this area to seek
protection from the Union Army, and it developed
and grew over time with a distinct history in the city.
• Hayti. Established in the early 1800s, the
neighborhood was founded by freed slaves and
named to commemorate the successful rebellion of
enslaved people in Haiti.
Markers for Historic Events
• Alexandria Library Sit-In. In 1939, AfricanAmerican residents staged an important sit-in at
the library to protest its segregation.
• Suffragists Court Decision site. The site of
an important court decision regarding female
suffragists protesting for the right to vote
helped fuel national outrage and lead to the 19th
Amendment to the US Constitution.
Memorials, Public Spaces and Public Art
• Contrabands and Freedmen Cemetery Memorial.
The Contrabands and Freedmen Cemetery
Memorial was reclaimed from development and
dedicated in 2014. The historic cemetery is where
1,711 men, women, and children were laid to rest
and now features a powerful sculpture depicting the
struggle to freedom and a bronze memorial with
the names of people known to be laid to rest in the
cemetery.
• Alexandria African American Heritage Park. The
park was designed to be integrated and co-exist
with a 19th century African American cemetery and
its natural landscape. Many headstones remain in
their original location. The center point of the park
features memorial sculptures of bronze trees called
"Truths That Rise From the Roots Remembered."
It acknowledges the contributions of African
Americans to the growth of Alexandria.
