Brent Leggs - Executive Director, African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund and Senior Vice President
Email - bleggs@savingplaces.org
Phone - 202-588-6185
Brent Leggs is the executive director of the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund and senior vice president of the National Trust. Envisioned as a social movement for justice, equity, and reconciliation, the Action Fund is promoting the role of cultural preservation in telling the nation’s full history, while also empowering activists, entrepreneurs, artists, and civic leaders to advocate on behalf of African American historic places.
A Harvard University Loeb Fellow and author of Preserving African American Historic Places, which is considered the “seminal publication on preserving African American historic sites” by the Smithsonian Institution, Brent is a national leader in the U.S. preservation movement and the 2018 recipient of the Robert G. Stanton National Preservation Award. His passion for elevating the significance of black culture in American history is visible through his work, which elevates the remarkable stories and places that evoke centuries of black activism, achievement, and community.
Over the past decade, he has developed the Northeast African American Historic Places Outreach Program, and its theme, the Business of Preservation, to build a regional movement of preservation leaders saving important landmarks in African American history. As the project manager for several National Treasure campaigns across the country, he led efforts to create the Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument in Alabama, which President Barack Obama designated in January 2017. Other campaign successes include the perpetual protection of cultural monuments like Villa Lewaro, the estate of Madam C. J. Walker in Irvington, New York; Joe Frazier’s Gym in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Hinchliffe Stadium in Paterson, New Jersey; A. G. Gaston Motel in Birmingham; Nina Simone’s birthplace in Tryon, North Carolina; John and Alice Coltrane’s home in Huntington, New York; and more.
Brent has taught at Harvard University, Boston Architectural College and the University of Maryland. He is a Senior Advisor and Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for the Preservation of Civil Rights Sites (CPCRS) and is an Adjunct Professor at Columbia University’s graduate program in Historic Preservation.
Articles and Appearances
- "How One Preservationist Is Bridging Black History with Black Futures," Veranda
- "US needs monuments celebrating African American history, not Confederate statues," The Art Newspaper
- "What Should Happen to Confederate Statues in the U.S.," Architectural Digest
- Preserving African American Historic Places
- "Growth of Historic Sites," The Public Historian, University of California Press
- "The Fight to Preserve African-American History," The New Yorker
- NBC Today Show appearance
- “The Mellon Foundation at 50,” a documentary by director Stanley Nelson
- “The Green Book: A Guide to Freedom,” a Smithsonian Channel documentary by filmmaker Yoruba Richen
- “The Conscience of America: Birmingham’s Fight for Civil Rights,” a CUNY TV and Black American documentary by producer Carol Jenkins
- Brent Leggs: Seeing History, Seeing Potential, Creative Mornings at NPR
- "A Grant Helps to Restore the Largest Colonial-Era African Burial Ground in the U.S.," Architectural Digest
- "Nina Simone’s Childhood Home Gets ‘National Treasure’ Designation," New York Times
- "James Monroe Enslaved Hundreds. Their Descendants Still Live Next Door.," New York Times
- C-Span Appearances
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