This article first appeared in the New Pittsburgh Courier, June 3, 2019
by Alonna J. Carter, For New Pittsburgh Courier
On May 11, members of the Edna B. McKenzie branch of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) traveled to Negro Mountain in Garrett County, Maryland, to clean the area of litter, while always respecting the significance of this space in African American history.
The Edna B. McKenzie branch is based in Pittsburgh and adopted a portion of the highway that runs through Negro Mountain in 2018. Our branch cleans it four times each year.
The upkeep of Negro Mountain is just one of the projects that our group has taken on.
Our organization offers many efforts to educate the public about the places and issues that have affected people of African American descent, and to preserve sites of historical significance. Though we are not the first group to take up the effort, our group is diligent in ensuring the area stays clean and that the public is educated about the free African American man for which the mountain is named: Nemesis.