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Sustaining Tangible Neighborhood Change through African American Archaeology in Easton, Maryland: Evaluating The Hill Community Project

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Abstract

The Hill Community Project in Easton, Maryland, between 2012 and 2019 employed archaeologists from the University of Maryland to build social and political capital for local advocates in a campaign against gentrification in one of the United States’ oldest free African American neighborhoods. Emerging research on The Hill contributed to achieving a publicly funded program for equitable investment that combined historic preservation, community revitalization, and affordable housing. Interviews with local leaders and a review of newspaper reporting reflect the most productive and most challenging aspects of this partnership between scholarship and activism.

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Acknowledgments

Our archaeological project in Easton would not have been possible without the invitations extended by Historic Easton, Inc., and by Professor Dale Green of Morgan State University. The archaeological team from the University of Maryland is indebted to The Hill’s residents for their warm welcome, and particularly to Asbury United Methodist Church for the use of its parsonage as a field laboratory. My colleagues on The Hill Community Project Team included preservationist Dale Green, land records researcher Cynthia Schmidt, oral historians/ethnographers Angela Howell and Yvonne Freeman, and genealogists Catherine Wilson and Lyndra Marshall. Public outreach for the project was particularly shaped by the work of Cassandra Vanhooser and her staff at the Talbot County Office of Tourism and by exhibit designer Patrick Rogan and by the reporting of the staff at the Star-Democrat. Our archaeological team is also indebted to Tim Poly for the use of his excellent photographs of our work, one of which is included in this article. Financial support for archaeological research was provided in large part by Historic Easton, Inc., and for public interpretation by the Maryland Heritage Area Authority.

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Jenkins, T.H. Sustaining Tangible Neighborhood Change through African American Archaeology in Easton, Maryland: Evaluating The Hill Community Project. Int J Histor Archaeol 26, 118–146 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10761-021-00598-4

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