Marcus Smith

Marcus P. Smith is a historic preservationist, historical consultant, and fifth-year Ph.D. candidate in Afro-American Studies and Public History at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. His work centers on preserving and interpreting historically African American communities, cultural landscapes, and grassroots museums, with particular attention to community history and local preservation practice.

He is the founder of the Black Grassroots Heritage Preservation Network (BGHPN), a national storytelling, advocacy, and interactive mapping platform that connects grassroots heritage practitioners and scholars across regions to strengthen community-driven preservation efforts. Featuring a freely accessible and regularly updated interactive map and database of nearly 400 Black-led preservation projects across the United States, BGHPN is among the most comprehensive resources documenting Black grassroots preservation and community histories nationwide.

Marcus has presented his research at national conferences hosted by the National Council for Black Studies, the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, the National Council on Public History, and the Vernacular Architecture Forum. In 2024, he received the Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Innovation Fellowship to support his work and research on and with grassroots museums in historically Black rural, agro-urban, and coastal communities in Maryland, Mississippi, and Florida.

He has formerly served as a board member of the National Council for Black Studies and currently serves as Co-Chair of the Grassroots Public History Award Committee for the National Council on Public History.