Places linked to African American heritage in Los Angeles will be identified in an effort to preserve them, the Getty arts organization and the city announced Tuesday.
The three-year Los Angeles African American Historic Places Project will work with local communities and cultural institutions to identify places that best represent the African American experience in the city, the collaborators said in a statement.
Just over 3% of the city's 1,200 designated local landmarks are linked to African American heritage despite extensive efforts to record LA's historic places, they said.
The project will be led by the Getty Conservation Institute and the city's Office of Historic Resources.
"Historic preservation is about the acknowledgment and elevation of places and stories," said Tim Whalen, the institute's director. "The point of this work is to make sure that the stories and places of African Americans in Los Angeles are more present and complete than previously."
The work is also about making sure that preservation methods are examined for systemic bias, he said.
The project was announced after a virtual roundtable that sought input from national and local leaders in urban planning, historic preservation, African American history and grassroots or community organizing.