Moton Museum takes another step towards World Heritage List

A project nearly a decade in the making moved forward this week as the Robert Russa Moton Museum moved one step closer to World Heritage designation. Federal officials from the U.S. Department of the Interior announced they plan to nominate a multi-state application, including the museum, for inclusion on the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) list.

Typically, individual locations are nominated on their own. But in 2016, officials at Georgia State University had an idea. Why not submit a single application with multiple locations in the South that played a role in the American civil rights movement? The Moton Museum is one of several locations that are part of that group.

“We are thrilled with the nomination,” said Cainan Townsend, director of the Moton Museum. “For years, international visitors have come to visit our historic site, so receiving World Heritage designation would increase our international visibility and help spread our story around the world. We are grateful to so many local, regional and statewide partners who have helped support this effort. World Heritage designation is the highest form of historic designation a site can receive internationally.”

What is a World Heritage List?

So before we go into the application process in detail, let’s first explain a little bit about the end goal. In 1972, UNESCO created the World Heritage List. This list consists of sites around the world that meet the criteria to be preserved for their natural or cultural contribution. For example, the Taj Mahal is on this list. The Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem and the Great Wall of China are also included. Once a site is on the list, UNESCO and the UN agree to help protect it for future generations.

It’s hard to make the list. There are only 1,199 sites in the world on it. In the entire United States, there are only 25 sites on it right now. Those are places like Independence Hall, Yellowstone National Park, Monticello here in Virginia, and the Statue of Liberty. But once they’re on the list, UNESCO gives the sites five things.

• The first is funding for preservation. Sites can apply for money from the World Heritage Fund, which provides dollars for maintenance and renovations.
• The second is legal protection. Once a site is on the list, it falls under the Convention for the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage. It cannot be condemned, it cannot be removed.
• The third is international recognition. A site on the list gets attention all over the world, which can bring in more visitors.
• The fourth is expert advice. Countries with protected sites can receive financial assistance and advice from the World Heritage Committee on the best ways to support conservation efforts.
• And fifthly, the site is guarded. UNESCO monitors and controls the status of protected sites and encourages countries to take measures to protect and preserve them.

A view of the former Moton High, now the Moton Museum

Moton Museum one of many locations

So what sites are part of this application? There are several, connected in one overall story.

There are three places where protest marches, mass demonstrations and violent suppression of nonviolent activists took place.

“Three historic black churches in Alabama are already on the U.S. Tentative List for World Heritage and await this formal nomination,” said Dr. Glenn T. Eskew, director of the Georgia State University World Heritage Initiative, which is preparing the application. Eskew explained that “additional sites will be added that collectively express the African American agency that used nonviolent protest to end the racial segregation of legal white supremacy and achieve freedom and equality for all people.”

The Moton Museum is part of the second section, three locations related to the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark 1954 school desegregation ruling in Brown vs. Education Council. The Moton Museum was formerly Moton High School, a segregated school for black children. It was there that black students walked out because of their poor school conditions, and later filed a lawsuit that was consolidated with similar cases to form what is now the Brown case. Also included in this group is Monroe Elementary School in Topeka, Kansas, which was another case. Also included is Central High in Little Rock, Arkansas, where federal officials escorted nine black students to class to Brown decision.

Another section emphasizes the role the African-American church played in the civil rights movement. Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church is identified with the Montgomery Bus Boycott, where the federal courts Brown decision to adopt public transportation; and both Bethel Baptist Church and Sixteenth Street Baptist Church reflect the struggle for equal access to public amenities in Birmingham; likewise, Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, reveals the theology preached by the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The fourth section includes sites of nonviolent demonstrations, such as the 1961 Freedom Ride, which was met with white resistance upon arrival at the Greyhound Bus Terminal in Anniston, Alabama, but still proceeded. It also introduces sites identified with sit-ins and freedom rides, such as the Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument in Jackson, Mississippi, where a white supremacist assassinated the civil rights activist in 1963.

Finally, the application includes sites of mass protests against white supremacy, such as the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, where the 1963 March on Washington took place, and the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, where the state brutally beat voting rights advocates in 1965.

What happens now?

First, groups submit an application to their respective governments. In this case, that happened in 2023. According to UNESCO officials, only countries can nominate sites for inclusion on the World Heritage List. Last week, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Halland authorized the National Park Service to proceed with a joint nomination for the civil rights groups, including the Moton Museum.

To do this, a more detailed plan is needed, explaining everything from daily activities to how the sites are preserved and why they should be listed. It is then reviewed and approved by the National Park Service and the Assistant Secretary of the Interior. It is then sent to the International Council on Monuments and Sites, which gives UNESCO a thumbs up or thumbs down recommendation. Think of them as a planning committee in this case. They make recommendations and then the World Heritage Committee, like a county board of supervisors, makes a final decision.

Just don’t expect this to happen anytime soon. It will probably be a couple of years before the request goes to the Heritage Committee for a vote.