The city is uncovering long buried accomplishments of African American Cantabrigians with the placement of the first twenty markers on the Cambridge African American Heritage Trail.

The African American Heritage Project, after two years of research, is about to complete the first phase of its attempts to mark African American strength in Cambridge.

"There will be a place in the country concerned not only with the beginning of America but also African American contributions to early history," said Mayor Kenneth E. Reeves '72.

"The Cambridge trails, combined with the African American Trail in Boston, will give people more of a complete view of what has made Cambridge and Boston the cities they are today," Reeves said.

The first steps of the trail, to be blazed in June, highlight African American Cantabrigians who made strides in political and social change for the United States in the 19th century and early 20th century.

At each site along the trail, one will find an aluminum post and sign photoengraved with a few pages of history and a portrait.

"Almost everyone has forgotten that a century ago, African Americans were very prominent in local and state affairs," said Charles Sullivan, project co-manager of historical programs at the Cambridge Historical Commission.

Sullivan said African Americans in that period lived "all over the city, places that are not necessarily Black neighborhoods today."

Visitors to Cambridge will soon be able to gaze at the home sites of prominent figures such as W.E.B. DuBois. His residence during his years at Harvard, 20 Flagg St., still stands as a reminder of the first Black to earn a doctorate and the founder of the Niagara Movement, the predecessor to the NAACP.

The site of 265 Prospect St., now a vacant lot, marks the former home of Clement Morgan, Cambridge's first Black alderman. An 1890 graduate of Harvard College who graduated from Harvard Law School in 1893, Morgan was also instrumental in the Niagara movement against segregation.

The residence of Pauline Hopkins, the founder and editor of The Colored American magazine, is another stop on the tour.

Other points include the residences of Lewis and Milton Clarke, William Wells Brown, John J. Fatal, Harriet Jacobs, Lunsford Lane, Patrick H. Raymond and Joshua Bowen Smith, all associated with the abolition, emancipation, and reconstruction movements.

Those recognized in connection with the protest era are Louis Baldwin, Rev. J. Henry Duckery, William H. Lewis, Emery T. Morris, Rev. William H. Scott and Rev. P. Thomas Stanford.

Richard T. Greener, Charlotte Hawkins Brown and Alberta V. Scott are honored as symbols of education and social reforms. Franklin H. Wright is chosen as an example of 20th century political activism.

Of course, these 20 sites could not cover the wealth of contributions by those who have actively changed the nation, but these few present a sense of accomplishment that has been unnoticed for a long time, organizers of the trail said.