CPCRS

The Center for the Preservation of Civil Rights Sites (CPCRS) advances the understanding and sustainable conservation of heritage places commemorating American civil rights histories and Black heritage. The Center's focus is on the long Black freedom struggle in the United States, from the colonial era to the present, though it recognizes that important civil rights histories and legacies draw on many other experiences in the US and abroad. 

How CPCRS Works

Everyday Spaces and Iconic Sites
The CPCRS seeks to preserve the heritage of the United States civil rights in all its forms. These include iconic sites already recognized as heritage places, vernacular buildings, cultural landscapes as well as the everyday spaces. 

Always in Partnership
Representatives collaborate with preservation advocates, government agencies, stewardship organizations as well as other educational organizations engaged in remembering, studying and stewarding the legacy of the United States civil rights history. 

Building on Traditions
CPCRS strives to honor and support our organizational partners’ traditions of education, storytelling, as well as community stewardship to remember the profound and significant civil rights stories — tragic and triumphant — across the country. 

The CPCRS undertakes research, teaching, and fieldwork to explore issues and solutions, raise awareness, and build capacity at heritage sites with significant civil rights histories.

Tuskegee- Penn Partnership

In 2019, Tuskegee University and the University of Pennsylvania entered into a teaching-fieldwork- research partnership, supported by the J.M. Kaplan Fund. Through a $1.5 million grant from the Mellon Foundation, Tuskegee and Penn continue to collaborate to build capacity among Black-led institutions to reimagine, redesign, and redeploy historic preservation to address the needs of Black historical places, organizations, and communities.

Henry Ossawa Tanner House

CPCRS is working with Friends of the Henry O. Tanner House, the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia and Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc. on sustainable long-term preservation plans for the Henry Ossawa Tanner House National Historic Landmark in North Philadelphia. This project is made possible by an $150,000 grant from the Mellon Foundation.

National Register of Historic Places Nomination

The Center provides opportunities for students and recent graduates, from Penn and Tuskegee, to add Black heritage sites to the National Register of Historic Places, the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. These places, from individual buildings to rural landscapes, are identified in partnership with the Pennsylvania State Historic Preservation Office and the Alabama Historical Commission.

Fellowships and Internships

The Center offers paid internship opportunities for students to support our existing projects, while fellowships allow emerging professionals to expand their own research agendas related to civil rights and historic preservation.

Civil Rights Heritage Courses

CPCRS engages students with our partners in Alabama and Philadelphia through Historic Preservation curriculum development. In classrooms, studios, labs, and in the field, educators and students collaborate to apply CPCRS preservation philosophies and principles to real world problems/projects.