The Vermont Department of Tourism and Marketing and the Vermont Partnership for Fairness and Diversity are pleased to announce that new sites have been added to the Vermont African American Heritage Trail. The additions include the Clemmons Family Farm in Charlotte, as well as Buffalo Soldiers Historic Markers in Colchester and Essex. The new sites appear in the updated brochure for the heritage trail released in April 2017.
The Clemmons Family Farm is one of the oldest and largest African American-owned farms in Vermont and has been in the family since 1962. The 148-acre property includes six historic farm buildings, prime farmland and forest on the shore of Lake Champlain and serves as an African American heritage and multicultural center.
“Few things excite the mind of a traveler more than the discovery of some new bit of knowledge in some unexpected place,” said Curtiss Reed, Executive Director of Vermont Partnership for Fairness and Diversity. “As African American history and Vermont are not top-of-mind associations, visitors will be pleasantly surprised at the depth of the intertwined history between persons of African heritage and Vermont dating back to the 1600s, long before the founding of Vermont as a state.”
The Vermont African American Heritage Trail takes visitors to museums and cultural sites where exhibits, films, tours and personal explorations illuminate the lives of African Americans for whom the Green Mountain State was part of their identity. This trail was established four years ago to celebrate the historic and new populations of Africans in Vermont and to promote the attractions associated with their achievements and contributions to visitors and residents alike.
The Vermont African American Heritage Trail is an initiative of the Vermont Partnership for Fairness & Diversity in collaboration with the Vermont Department of Tourism and Marketing, the Vermont Division for Historic Preservation, local historical societies and museums.