MTHS Documents Black Lives in Montana

• February 27 2023

The historic ebb and flow of Montana’s Black population is laid out in a new Black Montana’s Heritage Places Multiple Property Document.

The 258-page cover document provides an all-encompassing background on the Black experience in Montana. It allows historians nominating a property to the National Register of Historic Places to only focus on the place itself, without the need to re-present information found in the cover document.

“The cover sheet of every NR nomination has a line that asks if the nomination is associated with an MPD,” said John Boughton, who shepherds Montana’s nominations through the federal process. “If a nomination is associated with an MPD, the name of the MPD is provided on that line, which then allows the reader of the nomination to know that additional history related to the nomination can be found in the MPD.

“In essence, it removes the need for a lot of duplicate paperwork.”

The MPD maps Black Montana from the early 19^th century into the 1970s and was prepared by Dr. Delia Hagen of Missoula in conjunction with the State Historic Preservation Office of the Montana Historical Society. The National Council on Public History announced that Hagen will receive its 2023 Individual Excellence in Consulting Award for her book-length National Register documentation, Montana’s Black Heritage Places. 

“It’s mapping of Black lives, of Black presence and places, shows that African Americans are an integral and prominent part of Montana history, and have been so across both space and time,” Hagen wrote in the report. “It reveals how, in crucial ways, Montana is a fundamentally Black place. By the same token, Montana history is a significant component of African American history.”

She notes that Montana’s Black past encompasses all of the state’s major cities, and every county. Mapping Black Montana also documents the context of White supremacy and structural racism, as well as the African American’s community’s multitudinous struggles against them.

The document can be found online at https://mhs.mt.gov/Shpo/docs/MPDs/MT_BlackMontanasHeritagePlacesMPD.pdf

Montana has almost 50 other Multiple Property Listings, including those related to airway beacons, bridges, fire lookouts, and post-World War II architecture. They can be found at https://mhs.mt.gov/Shpo/index1