Brent Leggs, executive director of the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund and senior vice president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, at the New Amsterdam Musical Association in Harlem.
Photographer: Aundre Larrow for Bloomberg Pursuits
Historic Preservation Is Having a Renaissance. Meet the Man Driving It
More than 300 Black cultural sites across the US are being restored through $150 million in philanthropic funds. Here’s how Brent Leggs goes about preserving the past.
Growing up in a tight-knit, middle-class Black community in small-town Paducah, Kentucky, Brent Leggs never intended to become one of the most important historical preservationists in the US.
When he enrolled at the University of Kentucky, he majored in marketing, then got his master’s in business administration, with a focus on finance and real estate development.