Notes Toward a History of Black Landscape Architecture

Yet so far Black Lives Matter, as with many similar efforts, has not tied its broader aspirations to an awareness of the potential of Black urban and landscape designers and planners. In The Aesthetics of Equity, Craig L. Wilkins explores the disconnect between Black and brown empowerment writ large and the design professions; as he puts it: “how the marginalization of African Americans is authorized within the field of architecture.” An inquiry into this disconnect is timelier than ever. For although there is significant creative production around BLM in music, fashion, and various forms of media, there has so far been little comparable response from the built environment professions, including landscape architecture. It is time, then, to think not only about how landscape architecture, as currently constituted, can better serve Black communities, but also about how the profession might be radically reconceptualized. In this era of manifest inequity and injustice, how can we remake our discipline so that Black Landscapes Matter? Several historical episodes, ranging from the Carolinas to the nation’s capital, offer potent examples.