Significance Unrivaled | Brent Leggs and Samuel Collins III | Preserving Black History is Preserving American History | Galveston Island: Expanding the American Story
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Brent Leggs
The National Trust For Historic Preservation
Absolute Equality is located at 2201 Strand St, Galveston, TX 77550
To support these projects exhibited in this episode:
Juneteenth Legacy Project: https://www.juneteenthlegacyproject.com/
NIA Cultural Center: https://niacultural.org/
Sam Collins Speaking engagements: https://truthstrong.org/
Historic resources for everything Sam discusses in the episode: https://www.galvestonunscripted.com/sam-collins
Sam Collins III is a proud father, husband, and BOI (Born on the Island). Sam has been an instrumental figure in the Juneteenth Legacy Project, the presidential pardon of Jack Johnson (the Galveston Giant), and restoration and historical projects throughout Galveston County.
He chairs or holds a seat on key historical, preservation, and community boards and committees throughout Galveston County and the state of Texas.
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