The project brings together the efforts over many years by a diverse group of local scholars, historians, educators  and community leaders to identify, preserve and share the area's rich African American heritage. Representatives from every higher education institution in Berkshire County and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, as  well as local historical societies, restoration sites, African American churches, and other organizations formally came together for the first time in January 2004 as the African American Heritage Trail Advisory Council. 

Soon thereafter, the National Park Service and local contributors funded the research and writing of a first draft heritage trail guide that recognizes African-Americans of national and international significance, while illuminating distinctly local people, places and events that reflect national trends. The guide tells the stories of these people, some of the places they lived and died and, events that reveal their courage and determination in the face of adversity to fully participate in all aspects of American society. 

Activities in 2006-2007 include:
* inauguration of the Upper Housatonic Valley African American Heritage Trail with a motor coach tour
* publication of the 250-page African American Heritage in the Upper Housatonic Valley
* publication of a free Trail Guide to the region's key forty-eight sites and companion guide to Jacob's Pillow Dance
* Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts sponsored The Shaping Role of Place in African American Biography -- a fifteen-month program of curriculum development in our region’s schools, culminating in a national conference

This effort of the Upper Housatonic Valley National Heritage Area is funded by the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities, Massachusetts Cultural Council,  National Endowment for the Arts, Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation, and others.

In addition to the heritage trail and guidebook, the Advisory Council has undertaken:

* to develop an African-American Curriculum for college, high school, and elementary/middle school educators to incorporate guide materials in local school curricula;

* to compile a bibliography of regional sources; 

* to build upon the Berkshire Historical Society's Invisible Community oral history project and document the largely unwritten local history of African-Americans in the region

* to support emerging African American heritage centers including the Col. Ashley House in Sheffield to study Elizabeth 'Mumbet' Freeman and other South Berkshire County African-Americans; the Samuel Harrison House (Chaplain of the Massachusetts 54th Regiment) in Pittsfield; and the W. E. B. DuBois Boyhood Homesite in Great Barrington 

Ultimately, the goal is to create a physical trail that interprets and visualizes the heritage themes that tell the story of African-Americans in the Upper Housatonic Valley. The trail and the sites it showcases will become vehicles for educational initiatives and for a fully developed program of heritage tourism-lecture series and publications on specific themes, audio tours, a web site, and signage and other amenities for on-site interpretation.