The African American Heritage Trail History Project is pleased to introduce their newly restructured board of directors. The board is currently led by co-founder of the project, Dr. Elaine Cawley Weintraub, history department chairman at the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School, a twice awarded Cuffe fellow íin recognition of her contribution to íoriginal scholarship in the field of minority contributions to the maritime history of New England. íMs. Cawley Weintraub íhas received awards from the NAACP, the Munson Institute at the University of Connecticut, the B’nai Birith World of Difference program, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and Facing History & Ourselves. Her research on the African American history of Martha’s Vineyard has been published in the New England Journal of History, Race, Ethnicity and Power published by the Mystic Seaport Museum, the Organization of American íHistory, and, most prominently, in her book Lighting the Trail — the African American Heritage of Martha’s Vineyard.

Carrie Camillo Tankard, vice president of the Martha’s Vineyard chapter of the NAACP, Island activist and co-founder of the heritage trail is keeper of the archives and has worked tirelessly over many years to promote intercultural understanding on the Island.

Adjutant General of the Massachusetts National Guard, Joesph Carter will remain on our board as an emeritus member. Mr. Carter is the senior military advisor for the governor of Massachusetts. He has been a board member of the heritage trail project since its inception.

Joel Graves, a graduate of the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School and the University of Massachusetts where he took a history degree, traveled the trail in its early days, and now, as one of the sophomore class history teachers, he is involved in the development of the trail. His grandparents, Bob and Shirley Graves, made their homes on the Island and were long time activists in the Vineyard chapter of the NAACP.

Dr. Charles Ogletree Jr. is the Harvard Law Climenko Professor of Law and is the founding executive director of the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice. Dr. Ogletree is a prominent legal theorist who has made an international reputation by taking a hard look at complex issues of law and by working to secure the rights guaranteed by the Constitution for everyone equally under the law. His recent book, co-edited with Professor Austin Sarat of Amherst College, titled From Lynch Mobs to the Killing State: Race and the Death Penalty in America was published in May 2006.

Arthur Hardy Doubleday, a graduate of Trinity College, who has spent several years working with the Amistad project will join the board. Mr. Hardy Doubleday grew up on the Vineyard and is a veteran of the NAACP youth program.

Julia Rappaport, a graduate of Brown University where she took a degree in history, joins the board bringing with her a passion for history and a deep understanding of the mission and aims of the Heritage History Project. Ms. Rappaport grew up on the Vineyard and is a writer for the Vineyard Gazette.

John Budris, editor of Vineyard Style magazine and a journalist of renown, remains with the board as a member emeritus.

Alan J. Mahoney, a photographer, graphic designer and Web site designer who for many years has been responsible for the development and maintenance of the heritage trail’s Web site, joins the board. Mr. Mahoney is also a member of the Cape Cod Football Officials Association, and acts as a referee for Island schools basketball and baseball games.

The heritage trail project is delighted to welcome the expanded board of talented individuals. The award-winning public history project recently dedicated its 19th site in West Tisbury and is sponsoring a mobile museum which íis traveling throughout the Island ísharing a photographic display of Islanders who were involved with the Civil Rights íMovement in the 1960s. The í20th site dedicated to the founding of the NAACP on the Vineyard will be dedicated at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Edgartown early in 2008.