About the Asheville
Black Cultural Heritage Trail
The Black Cultural Heritage Trail honors and preserves the rich heritage of Asheville's Black community. Sites and stories range from well-known landmarks visible in the community today to the unsung heroes and underrecognized achievements and contributions by the Black community in the past.
Trail History
In 2010, residents of Asheville’s historically Black East End neighborhood proposed a trail to celebrate Black cultural heritage. River Front Development Group, a Black community development nonprofit founded in Asheville in 1996, committed to achieving these projects. River Front Development Group focused on co-creating and sharing narratives of often overlooked Black Ashevillians. This trail celebrates the dignity, humanity, and agency of Black people. Community input on this project has been provided through the Asheville Black Cultural Heritage Trail Committee.
Meet the Committee Members
Shana Adams
Wortham Center for Performing Arts
Matthew Bacoate
MB Consulting
Anne Chesky
Presbyterian Heritage Center
Andrea Clark
James Vester Miller Historic Trail
Claude Coleman, Jr.
Sound Space Co-Founder
Katie Cornell
Asheville Area Arts Council
Clifford W. Cotton II
Grandson of E. W. Pearson
Tiffany DeBellott
Center for Participatory Change
Debra Flack-Weaver
BCHT Committee Member
Dr. Joseph Fox
Martin Luther King, Jr. Association of Asheville and Buncombe County
Traci Freeze
Healed Skin and Candle Company
Aaron Griffin, Sr.
African American Heritage Commission
Veronika Gunter
JB Media Group
J Hackett
Grind AVL | Black Wall Street AVL
Catherine Mitchell
River Front Development Group
Marcell Proctor
River Front Development Group
Alexandria Ravenel
Noir Collective AVL
Demetra Roddy-Harris
Asheville City and Buncombe County Schools
Georgia M. Shannon
African American Heritage Commission
Tarah Singh
Singh Studios
Sarah Williams
Former Educator with Asheville City Schools
Acknowledgements
Explore Asheville would like to acknowledge the many hands, hearts, and minds that have contributed to this legacy project.
Archival Institutions and Research Support
Biltmore Collections Management Team
Buncombe County Special Collections
D. Hiden Ramsey Library Special Collections
East End / Valley Street Neighborhood Association
State Archives of North Carolina, Western Regional Archives
Branding, Design, and Fabrication
Curve Theory Design and Photography
Geograph Industries, Inc.
Helle Creative
Merje Design
Equity Advocacy Consultants
Aisha Adams, Aisha Adams Media Group, Equity Over Everything
Dina Bailey, Mountain Top Vision, LLC, and International Coalition of Sites of Conscience
Flo Jacques, undergraduate research assistant, University of North Carolina Asheville
Simiyha Garrison, public history doctoral candidate, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill
Photographers
Roger Ball, Roger Ball Photography
Reggie Tidwell, Curvey Theory
Printers
Allegra Printing
Research Historians
Katherine Calhoun Cutshall, collection manager, Buncombe County Special Collections
Dr. Sarah Judson, chair and professor of history, University of North Carolina Asheville
Dr. Steve Nash, associate professor, East Tennessee State University
Dr. Darin Waters, deputy secretary, North Carolina Office of Archives and History
Musicians
Leeda “Lyric” Jones
David Thompson
Voiceover for Audio Tour
Steph Hickling Beckman, co-founder and managing artistic director, Different Strokes Performing Arts Collective
Other Contributors
LEAF Global Arts
Jesse Bricker, Mountain Gateway Museum and Heritage Center
Willie Mae Brown, Member of the Martin Luther King Jr. Association of Asheville and Buncombe County, Inc., Asheville Greenworks, Asheville-Buncombe Community Relations Council, Serves on the Board of Directors of Community Action Opportunities
Jeff Futch, North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources Western Office
Garrison Hayes, Digital Storyteller
Jennifer Katy, member, Hopkins Chapel AME Zion Church
Dr. Oralene Simmons, president, Martin Luther King Jr. Association of Asheville and Buncombe County
Heather South, Western Regional Archives