Few sections of the Deep South have a stronger sense of place than Alabama’s Black Belt. The fields and pastures, trails and roads, plantations and farmsteads, churches and cemeteries, villages, courthouse squares and major towns are set in a landscape of rolling hills and prairies, oak and pine forest, swamps, creeks, and river banks. The region’s compelling history that touches major events in our national narrative, as well as its natural beauty and bounty, have long enchanted visitors. Rich in soil, once-rich in cotton wealth, and rich in history, the region has many stories to tell, stories that are rooted in the fine weave of land, building and traditions. The story of revitalization and renewal reflects the deep attachment Black Belt people hold for their home. In the early decades of the twentieth century, preservation’s main well spring were the proud owners of the spectacular collection of antebellum homes and churches, the museums commemorating the Confederacy or national heroes, and people who maintained their homeplaces as a way of life, an ethic of reuse by people without the inclination or means to tear down and build anew. During the past half century, a national preservation movement helped people in the Black Belt to expand the work of protecting, restoring and interpreting historic and cultural places to include the full range of Black Belt experiences: early pioneer roadways, small towns, commercial buildings, Victorian houses and churches, bungalows, gas stations, the farmsteads of freed African American slaves, World War I and II sites, and more recently, the structures and landscapes of the mid-twentieth century civil rights movement. The stories of the restoration of the culture dot the landscape of the Black Belt. Across the region, residents are preserving what makes the region unique. In Macon County, a local group is using an early twentieth century African American school as a community center. Energized women in Marion are reviving historic store front buildings around the courthouse square for new local businesses. In small rural villages such as Lowndesboro, Pine Apple, and Furman, proud owners are maintaining and restoring homes and distinctive landscape features - such as well houses, outbuildings and fences. In Gainesville, an 1830’s Greek Revival bank building moved to Tuscaloosa in the 1980s is returning to its original site for use as a visitor center. A first class renovation is underway of the 1939 Jones Archeological Museum, which tells the story of Moundville, North American’s largest pre-Columbian city. In the small town of York, an arts center and surrounding artists workshops are reviving the downtown. In Selma, the renovated St. James Hotel, one of the last Deep South antebellum river hotels, offers river views, great service and exceptional food. Cities such as Demopolis have turned storefronts into libraries, a firehouse into a community center, and hold plays in old school auditoriums. Small town movie palaces are being adapted for new uses and are making a comeback in towns like Greenville. State-owned landmark mansions, such as Gaineswood and Magnolia Grove, are fresh with new paint, structural repairs and new interpretations. Two major museums have received additional funds to document and commemorate the twentieth century struggle by African American’s to win full citizenship. Moton Field, where the famed Tuskegee Airmen learned to fly, is being restored to its World War II appearance and hosts annual fly-ins. In Lowndes County, the Lowndes County Interpretive Center tells the story of the 1965 Selma to Montgomery Voting Rights March. That stretch of U.S. Highway 80 is now an All-American Road and a National Scenic Byway, and current efforts are underway to document and protect the rural landscape along the route. This resurgence that seeks to tell the full story has had many partners—state and federal agencies and non-profit groups, academic programs from state universities, and generous donors and foundations. But the underlying drive for renewal has come from Black Belt people who value these places for their economic and social uses, and as touchstones for their stories for current and future generations.