NOMMO’s Latest Framework: Defend The Legacy: Tools for Protecting Black History, Artists & Museums Toolkit
At a time when Black history is being contested, distorted, and, in many cases, actively erased from public institutions, NOMMO Cultural Strategies is launching Defend the Legacy, a living toolkit for safeguarding Black memory in museums, archives, classrooms, and community spaces.
Introduced in 2026, this toolkit arrives at a pivotal moment: as the nation prepares for the 250th anniversary of the United States and the centennial of Black History Month, we are being forced to reckon with whose stories are protected — and whose are made expendable. Defend the Legacy responds to this crisis by offering a practical, principled framework for those committed to preserving Black history as essential American history.
Who is this toolkit for?
Defend the Legacy is designed for:
Museum professionals and curators
Educators and students
Artists and cultural workers
Community organizers and archivists
Advocates for historical justice
Rather than offering abstract theory alone, the toolkit provides strategies, questions, and frameworks that help users challenge exclusionary narratives, strengthen public interpretation, and center Black experiences within the American story, not as a sidebar, but as foundational.
Why Defend the Legacy?
We live in an era in which history itself has become a battleground. Book bans, restrictive legislation, and institutional avoidance have created real threats to how Black life is remembered in public culture.
This toolkit refuses to narrow memory. It equips users to:
Interrogate power in storytelling
Protect community histories
Reimagine museums as spaces of accountability
Affirm Black creativity, resilience, and intellectual traditions
Defend the Legacy is not just about preservation; it is about transformation: how we remember, who gets to speak, and what we choose to carry forward.
Join us in this work
We invite educators, curators, artists, and advocates to engage with Defend the Legacy as both a resource and a call to action. Together, we can build a future where Black history is not defended out of necessity, but honored as central to the American narrative.
Explore the toolkit above and download it via the Frameworks tab above. Let’s protect what matters, and shape the history yet to come.