The Sustainers: Being, Building and Doing Good Through Activism in the Sacred Spaces of Civil Rights, Human Rights and Social Movements

This full color pictorial book is a place where social actors in transformative times will find connection between servant-leaders like Medgar Evers and Malcolm X, who themselves have hallowed certain spaces with their sacrifices for justice, and the sustainers, who ensured the transformation of Robben Island Prison, the Selma to Montgomery trail, and other sites into permanent symbols of equality. Builders, actors, preservers, scholars, storytellers and activists, by returning again and again to these sites, hallow these grounds anew. Through their stories, readers will find: • inspiration to transform, restore and sustain landmarks of justice, in order to maintain the flame of many selfless acts, and by that light, to illuminate current and future efforts to transform society and bring forth the fruits of equality; • information about the reinforcing power that sacred spaces of the struggle have, for all generations and groups of justice workers, whether their efforts takes digital, direct action, traditional, or non-hierarchical form; • evolution of landmarks of the civil rights, human rights and social movements, and specific changes those landmarks must make in order to play a more integral and explicit role in bringing justice and equality for the marginalized. The book includes more than 170 images, many of them rare or archival photographs. The University of Mary Washington Center for Historic Preservation annually awards a prize to an author whose book has the most potential for having a positive impact on historic preservation in the United States. This year’s book prize jury focused on books that broke new ground or contributed to the intellectual vitality of the preservation movement. “The Sustainers took an authentic, grassroots approach to beginning a conversation about the tangible preservation and intangible meanings of African American sites,” said Michael Spencer, associate professor of historic preservation and director of the Center for Historic Preservation. “Such a conversation has long been a goal of preservationists in an effort to better represent the underserved African American community.