Robert DeForrest; Identified Black Landmarks

Robert A. DeForrest, 72, co-founder and president of a historic preservation institute that worked to locate landmarks throughout the United States that reflected African American history and culture, died of aspiration pneumonia Feb. 23 at George Washington University.

In 1970, Mr. DeForrest and his brother, Vincent, established what became the Afro-American Institute for Historic Preservation and Community Development. They later bought an old three-story mansion in the Columbia Heights neighborhood in Northwest Washington and filled it with old photographs, maps, blueprints and other documents that would help them identify and preserve historic sites and study urban and rural preservation plans and neighborhood development.

For 18 years, working with the U.S. Department of the Interior, the National Park Service, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the Historic American Buildings Survey, the institute conducted national studies that led to more than 60 sites in 22 states and the District being designated national historic landmarks.

In 1978, working with the Park Service and at the urging of a panel of 20 leading African American history scholars, the DeForrests completed a study that resulted in the Richmond home of Maggie L. Walker, a pioneering black banker and civic leader, being named a historic landmark. It was the first time a black woman had been so recognized by the National Park System.

The institute also identified churches, schools and other sites in the Maryland and Virginia suburbs and the District. Several places were in the District's Shaw neighborhood, which the DeForrests said "has more historically black sites than any other community of its size in the country."

Mr. DeForrest and his brother initially formed their institute in anticipation of the 1976 U.S. bicentennial celebrations. Then called the Afro-American Bicentennial Corp., the organization worked with the Park Service to host reenactments of Frederick Douglass's famous Fourth of July speech.

Crowds filled the grounds of the Douglass home in Southeast Washington to hear actor James Earl Jones deliver the oration in 1973, and in subsequent years they packed the Kennedy Center's Concert Hall.

Preserving history and knowing one's roots was important to Mr. DeForrest, who grew up as a ward of the state in his native Cleveland after his mother died when he was 1.

"The history we were taught in school always came from a Eurocentric perspective," Mr. DeForrest said in a 1989 Washington Post article. "But the presence of blacks in American history is very significant, from the Revolutionary War to Vietnam."

After serving in the Army in Germany, Mr. DeForrest came to Washington in 1967 and worked for several community action agencies, including Pride Inc. He also was a personnel manager for a health program.

When Vincent DeForrest, who had worked with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in the 1960s, came to the District in 1970, the two brothers formed the institute.

Robert DeForrest also grew concerned with the number of urban black communities that were being razed by developers and with the historic structures in rural areas that were deteriorating. "In preservation, you don't have the luxury of time," he said in 1989.

After a mild heart attack and a series of strokes, Mr. DeForrest retired in the late 1980s.

He was a member of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History.

His marriage to Dawn DeForrest ended in divorce.

Besides his brother, of the District and St. Louis, survivors include a daughter, Sylvia DeForrest-Price of Temple Hills; two sisters, Minister Theresa Graham and Sylvia Sims, both of Cleveland; two other brothers, John DeForrest and Charles DeForrest, both of Cleveland; and three grandchildren.