By James Hannah
The Associated Press

PALESTINE - The windows of the red brick farmhouse are boarded up and the chimneys crumbling. Inside, cobwebs stretch silky fingers over doorways, while raccoon dung is piled high on a stairway landing.

The barn at the Clemens Farmstead, crowned with a rusted tin roof and carpeted with weeds, is a collection of ragged-edged planks that hang loose and bang in the wind.

It was here in west-central Ohio that one of the state's first black settlements took root.

"This is not just black history," said descendant Roane Smothers. "This is American history that has been forgotten."

ABOUT THE SERIES

As Ohio prepares to celebrate its 200th year of statehood, pieces of its heritage have been lost or are in danger of vanishing. The Ohio Associated Press has profiled some of the most notable: • Saturday: History lost to time, neglect. • Monday: Hidden cemeteries are a link to Ohio's settlers. Also, American Indian mounds have been lost with growth. • Tuesday: Lands are being restored after generations of use, abuse. • Today: Ohio's black history fading from landscape. • Thursday: A quiz that takes a fun look at Ohio history

ON THE NET

• National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center • Ohio Underground Railroad Association • National Underground Railroad Freedom Center

Pioneer settlements like Darke County's Longtown, Underground Railroad sites, neighborhoods, businesses and theaters are part of Ohio's black history that have disappeared or are in danger of being lost as Ohio celebrates its bicentennial. Historians disagree on who bears responsibility.

"Some of it is simply lost forever, with little or no chance of ever regaining it," said Vernon Courtney, director of the National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center in Wilberforce.

In 1880, nearly 1,000 people and hundreds of buildings made up Longtown. Today, only 10 buildings remain.

"It's hidden. Nobody knows about it," Mr. Smothers said. "It's a story that needs to be told."

Up to 75 of Ohio's more than 1,000 Underground Railroad sites have been demolished and others are in danger of being destroyed or falling down, said Cathy Nelson, founder and former president of the Friends of Freedom Society, which oversees the Ohio Underground Railroad Association.

Only 15 sites have historical markers.

The Underground Railroad was a network of safe houses, churches and shelters instrumental in helping an estimated 30,000 slaves escape to free states and Canada during the 19th century.

"Once it's gone, it's gone," Ms. Nelson said. "If you've got no one telling the history, passing it on to the next generation, it's as if these people never existed. That's a travesty."

Floyd Thomas, curator of the Afro-American museum, said much about the Underground Railroad is not known because it was based on secrecy.

"Consequently, a lot has been lost because it wasn't written or recorded," Mr. Thomas said.

Mr. Thomas said many historians, archaeologists and museum officials were not interested in black history because they were the advocates of the status quo, which glorified the wealthy and powerful. Black history also was ignored because it would have required acknowledging the racism and discrimination that permeated America, he said.

"American society up until recently systematically depreciated the importance of the history of African people," Mr. Courtney said.

Carl Westmoreland, senior adviser for Cincinnati's National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, said blacks share responsibility.

"I don't know that we can blame white historians for not keeping our history alive," Mr. Westmoreland said. "But we can darn sure damn ourselves."

Mr. Courtney said urban renewal and the building of freeways through U.S. cities often chewed up black neighborhoods, where residents had no political clout and property values were low

At one time, Fifth Street in Dayton was the economic and social hub of the city's black community. Theaters, clubs and businesses that included a fish market, barber shops and drugstores made "walking the nickel" the thing to do.

The 1,200-seat Palace Theater, built in 1927, pulsed with the likes of Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie, Billy Eckstein and other top black entertainers.

"You can hear the echoes," said Michael Branch, who owns the Palace. "That was the place to be. There's tremendous history there."

Today, the "nickel" is just a memory. The Palace, which has been vacant since the 1970s, is being demolished.

"There is so much of the structure that is water damaged from years of neglect," said John Baker, manager of Dayton's housing-inspection division.

Mr. Branch tried for nine years to raise the nearly $7 million needed to renovate the Palace.

Mary Ann Olding, a history professor at the Union Institute and University in Cincinnati, said blacks and mulattos were among Ohio's pioneers.

"But for some reason, that chapter is missing from Ohio history books," Ms. Olding said.

"I would like people to have a vision of black faces behind plows and horses and not with wide eyes running through the woods," Ms. Olding said. "I would like to see they get their respective position in settling Ohio."