Buffalo’s Emerald Necklace

Over the course of her sabbatical (January-August 2024), Dr. Jennifer D. Roberts collected archival research and gathered oral histories from lifelong residents for her forthcoming book, “Buffalo's Emerald Necklace:  How Racism Devastated a Community and Destroyed an Olmsted Treasure”.

This book, under contract with Island Press, will travel through Buffalo, NY history to share the story of how its emerald necklace of parks and parkways, created and designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, and a well-connected, albeit segregated, Black Buffalo community was destroyed with the excavation of Humboldt Parkway and intrusion of the six-lane Kensington Expressway.

“Buffalo’s Emerald Necklace” will take us on a walk back in time to remember the city as a locus of promise for many Black Americans by way of the Underground Railroad, Great Migration, as well as the Niagara Movement. It will show how the Queen City’s treasured green space was soiled by racist urban planning, White flight and suburbanization. This book will offer a look forward to how the Humboldt Parkway community can be revitalized, reconnected and overcome the devastations of past transportation and urban planning decisions.

“Buffalo’s Emerald Necklace” will serve as a literary tale that brings to light a social injustice and the longstanding impacts of environment racism while presenting actions and steps of community reclamation and restoration to achieve healing and hope.

For a preview of “Buffalo’s Emerald Necklace”, check out the video below. To learn more about the forthcoming book, speaking engagements or interviews can be requested and scheduled through Mildred’s Kitchen .