For eighty years, the American Association for State and Local History (AASLH) has presented Leadership in History Awards to establish and encourage standards of excellence in the collection, preservation, and interpretation of state and local history in order to make the past more meaningful to all people.
Today, AASLH announces the winners of the History in Progress awards. The History in Progress (HIP) Award is a special additional award for an Award of Excellence winner whose nomination is highly inspirational, exhibits exceptional scholarship, and/or is exceedingly entrepreneurial in terms of funding, partnerships, or collaborations, creative problem solving, or unusual project design and inclusiveness. This is an award made at the discretion of the Awards Committee.
The 2025 Albert B. Corey Award winner, United Lynn Pride, was previously announced. The rest of the Awards of Excellence winners will be announced later this week.
History in Progress Awards
The History in Progress Award is a special recognition for winners that are particularly inspiring and creative, and is only given to 5 percent or fewer of the total awardees per year. This year, two engaging projects preserving modern Black history and communities rose to the top.
Louisville Story Program (Louisville, Kentucky), for I’m Glad About It: The Legacy of Gospel Music in Louisville, 1958-1981
This rich and multifaceted project preserved the legacy of Black gospel music in Louisville through deep community engagement and cultural reclamation of recordings and photos. The aim of the Louisville Story Program was to make a project not only about the Louisville gospel community, but with and for them, and for the local gospel community to benefit as much as possible from the project. Through tireless archival and public research, oral histories, digitization, and the creation of a book and recording collection, I’m Glad About It restores Louisville’s rich gospel history to the public consciousness and to the people who lived it.
At the beginning of the project, it quickly became evident that the 1950s through the 1970s was the era in which Louisivlle’s gospel music community was at its peak: largest number of gospel artists and musicians, largest audiences, largest quantity and frequency of gospel programs, and the greatest centrality of gospel music to Black life in Louisville. Yet most of the recorded output of the Louisville gospel music community in Louisville during that time was extremely difficult to find and almost none of it had been digitized and made publicly available. Many of the recordings created by Louisville artists during this era were no longer in the possession of anyone in the local gospel community. The project located, digitized, and made publicly available every Louisville gospel recording from the vinyl era, restoring them both to the community and the historic record. LSP worked closely with elders in the Louisville gospel community who knew the history and who had spent their lives helping to build and sustain this rich gospel legacy. Their oral histories, direction, feedback, and co-creation made this project a true reflection of Louisville Story Program’s vision: that one day all communities in Louisville will have equal opportunity and resources to document their culture and history as a pathway to healing and belonging
Detroit Historical Society (Detroit, Michigan) for The Hustle: Celebrating Detroit’s Unsung Entrepreneurs
As of the 2012 census, there were more than 60,000 small businesses in Detroit and nearly 49,000 of them were Black-owned. These businesses and the people who run them are often anchors in their communities, providing neighbors with opportunities for employment, recreation, support and socializing, as well as access to quality goods and services and skilled care. Yet these cornerstones of Detroit’s community had never been highlighted in local museums.
The Detroit Historical Society launched The Hustle in 2022 to celebrate Detroit’s unsung entrepreneurs. This two-year initiative, which ran from April 2022 through April 2024, showcased inspiring Black Detroiters who rose to success in unexpected industries by uncovering, documenting, and preserving the stories of thirty-four people whose work has made everyday life in Detroit special. The honorees, nominated by hundreds of community members and selected by an independent panel of evaluators, represented an intentionally diverse array of business and services in categories that included shopkeepers, artists, entertainers, helpers, caregivers, foodies, fixers, and more. With its first round successfully concluded in 2024 and a second round set to launch in 2025, this multi-faceted project includes a series of quarterly exhibitions at the Detroit Historical Museum that are complemented by public events and education programs, celebrations, a day-long resource summit, and a gala. The Hustle: Celebrating Detroit’s Unsung Entrepreneurs supported DHS’s mission and exemplified their commitment to ensuring that their museums are reflective of the city as it is today, with exhibits and programming that tell all of Detroit’s stories.
