Black Heritage Council

2009 Preservation Forum

The Forum was held Friday, May 29- Saturday, May 30, 2009 at the Historic Calhoun County Training School in Hobson City.

The theme for the Forum was “Celebrating and Preserving the Legacy of Historic Hobson City through Tourism and Economic Development”

It focused on heritage tourism, economic development and community preservation for the Town of Hobson City, the oldest black incorporated municipality in the state and one of the oldest in the nation.

Location:

Historic Calhoun County Training School

700 Martin Luther King Drive

Hobson City, AL 

Founded in 1899, Hobson City is the oldest all-black governing municipality in Alabama and one of the oldest in the nation. It is one of few all black municipalities in the South that has survived. 

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2008 Preservation Forum

The Forum was held June 27-28, 2008 in Selma at Historic First Baptist Church on Jeff Davis Avenue.

The theme for the Forum was “A Heritage So Rich: Discovering, Preserving, and Promoting the History and Culture of African Americans in the Black Belt through Tourism”                                                                                     

Sessions included information on heir property, rehabilitation tax credits for businesses in historic buildings, funding for historic projects, appropriate archiving techniques for historic documents and photos, and finding information on historic places and family history.

In addition to the educational sessions on Friday, participants also toured the Lowndes Interpretative Center in White Hall in Lowndes County to learn more about the Voting Rights Movement. On Saturday, Forum participants toured historic sites in Selma including Brown Chapel AME Church, Green Street Baptist Church and other places in and around Selma.

Forum participants on the steps of Brown Chapel AME Church in Selma