Black History Becoming A Star Tourist Attraction
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The Heavy Burden of Teaching My Son About American Racism
If my black child has to learn that society will hate him, he should hear about it from someone who unconditionally loves him.
Win McNamee / Getty
Was he ready to learn about one of the most notorious lynchings in the nation’s history? Could I bear to watch his eyes lose some of their glow?
The road that led from the highway to the one-street town of Glendora, Mississippi, was barely more than a trail. Only the concrete slabs remain of the home of one of Till’s lynchers, and just beyond it stands a gray building with corrugated metal walls. Inside is the Emmett Till Historic Intrepid Center, or ETHIC, a locally run museum, but in 1955, the year Till was killed, the structure housed a cotton gin. It is likely the place where Milam and his conspirators retrieved the 75-pound cotton-gin fan that they tied around Till’s neck with barbed wire to weigh him down after they threw his corpse into a nearby river.
It was a lot to explain to my son. I didn’t show him any of the gruesome pictures that made Till’s murder internationally known. I simply told him that some men had killed a boy because they thought people with brown skin had to be controlled, violently if necessary.
My son grew very still as he listened. “But it’s not like that anymore, is it?” he asked. “Well,” I replied, “it’s complicated.”
A lynching may be especially difficult to explain to a child, but I am far from alone as a parent who struggles to talk to his kids about race and its grim history in America. We take great care to teach our kids to treat others kindly, to share, and to forgive. But teaching them about America’s racial history is another project entirely, burdening us with the knowledge that in giving them the truth, we are taking away some of the joy with which they behold the world.
Every parent—whether deliberately or not—sends a message to his or her children about race, but the legacy of race-based chattel slavery means that for black parents the process of deliberation is unavoidable and particularly fraught. Every black parent has to have “the talk,” about how to survive an encounter with the police. In truth there is not one talk but several. There’s the talk about how people will fear you and consider you threatening no matter what you do. The talk about working twice as hard for half as much. The talk about how black kids don’t get second chances.
And even then, no matter how carefully parents inculcate a sense of racial awareness, there is the ever-present threat of bigotry’s random brutality. To be a black parent in America is to be in a state of constant vigilance. All parents know this caution to some degree—keep sharp objects out of reach, make sure they don’t play in the street, check out what kinds of friends they’re making. Black parents, on top of that, have to worry about shielding their children, and healing them, from antiblack racism.
They also, in having these conversations, often have to revisit old traumas of their own: having the word ****** hurled at them, having lost out on jobs or promotions because others viewed them as less competent than their lighter-skinned peers, having been pulled over simply because of their skin. I, for instance, dread talking with my son the first time he goes out on his own with a group of other black and brown-skinned boys. Having that conversation will take me back to the discomfort of how, when I was a kid, police officers seemed to have nothing better to do than follow me and my friends at the mall or the arcade.
The talking, the preparation, the vigilance is endless—and, frankly, exhausting. I admit I get tired at times, as I try to fight off anything that might smuggle a notion of inferiority into my black child’s mind. I have to investigate the racial representation in the latest animated movie and try to decode any of its subtle biases against people of color. I try to find children’s books that don’t feature black kids only in supporting roles or in the ghetto. I have to consider not only the racial composition of my child’s classroom but whether the leadership is diverse and racially sensitive as well. I absolutely will not buy him toy guns or let him play with them, even if the neon color of the plastic practically glows. I won’t even let him fix his fingers into the shape of a gun.
In the Deep South, where I live, racism is more physical and visible than it is in other places. We live in the Delta, so we drive past cotton fields frequently. When the plants are blooming in late fall, my son points out how beautiful the acres of fluffy white bolls look. He’s right, but at the same time I feel the need to remind him that people with skin like ours were forced to pick that cotton by hand for years and years.
It makes me mad to think that I have to explain all of these harsh realities to my child while others are subtly teaching their children ideas that continue to dehumanize people of color. I imagine them around the dinner table, parroting tropes about black laziness and welfare fraud, talking of “those people” and asking why they don’t just help themselves. Some wonder aloud whether the country would be better if we had never had a black president. Maybe there is some cosmic parenting dynamic at play: For every adult who is trying to train his or her children to confront racial intolerance, there is another teaching his or her children how to perpetuate and preserve it.
Next month will be the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. My son is now 7 years old, and I plan to take him to a commemoration at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis. He’s been once before. The museum is built right onto the Lorraine Motel, and I have explained to my son that the wreath on the balcony marks the precise spot where King had been standing when he was shot.
I want to tell my child that today life is better for black people. It is certainly different. People of color can enter any public building. We can make meaningful movies that bring in a billion dollars. We can even be president. At the same time, I have to prepare my black son for a nation still gripped by the myth of white supremacy. The best I can do, I’ve concluded, is err on the side of honesty. If my black son has to learn that society will hate him, then let him hear about it from someone who unconditionally loves him.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
.
If my black child has to learn that society will hate him, he should hear about it from someone who unconditionally loves him.
Win McNamee / Getty
- JEMAR TISBY
- MAR 20, 2018
Was he ready to learn about one of the most notorious lynchings in the nation’s history? Could I bear to watch his eyes lose some of their glow?
The road that led from the highway to the one-street town of Glendora, Mississippi, was barely more than a trail. Only the concrete slabs remain of the home of one of Till’s lynchers, and just beyond it stands a gray building with corrugated metal walls. Inside is the Emmett Till Historic Intrepid Center, or ETHIC, a locally run museum, but in 1955, the year Till was killed, the structure housed a cotton gin. It is likely the place where Milam and his conspirators retrieved the 75-pound cotton-gin fan that they tied around Till’s neck with barbed wire to weigh him down after they threw his corpse into a nearby river.
It was a lot to explain to my son. I didn’t show him any of the gruesome pictures that made Till’s murder internationally known. I simply told him that some men had killed a boy because they thought people with brown skin had to be controlled, violently if necessary.
My son grew very still as he listened. “But it’s not like that anymore, is it?” he asked. “Well,” I replied, “it’s complicated.”
A lynching may be especially difficult to explain to a child, but I am far from alone as a parent who struggles to talk to his kids about race and its grim history in America. We take great care to teach our kids to treat others kindly, to share, and to forgive. But teaching them about America’s racial history is another project entirely, burdening us with the knowledge that in giving them the truth, we are taking away some of the joy with which they behold the world.
Every parent—whether deliberately or not—sends a message to his or her children about race, but the legacy of race-based chattel slavery means that for black parents the process of deliberation is unavoidable and particularly fraught. Every black parent has to have “the talk,” about how to survive an encounter with the police. In truth there is not one talk but several. There’s the talk about how people will fear you and consider you threatening no matter what you do. The talk about working twice as hard for half as much. The talk about how black kids don’t get second chances.
And even then, no matter how carefully parents inculcate a sense of racial awareness, there is the ever-present threat of bigotry’s random brutality. To be a black parent in America is to be in a state of constant vigilance. All parents know this caution to some degree—keep sharp objects out of reach, make sure they don’t play in the street, check out what kinds of friends they’re making. Black parents, on top of that, have to worry about shielding their children, and healing them, from antiblack racism.
They also, in having these conversations, often have to revisit old traumas of their own: having the word ****** hurled at them, having lost out on jobs or promotions because others viewed them as less competent than their lighter-skinned peers, having been pulled over simply because of their skin. I, for instance, dread talking with my son the first time he goes out on his own with a group of other black and brown-skinned boys. Having that conversation will take me back to the discomfort of how, when I was a kid, police officers seemed to have nothing better to do than follow me and my friends at the mall or the arcade.
The talking, the preparation, the vigilance is endless—and, frankly, exhausting. I admit I get tired at times, as I try to fight off anything that might smuggle a notion of inferiority into my black child’s mind. I have to investigate the racial representation in the latest animated movie and try to decode any of its subtle biases against people of color. I try to find children’s books that don’t feature black kids only in supporting roles or in the ghetto. I have to consider not only the racial composition of my child’s classroom but whether the leadership is diverse and racially sensitive as well. I absolutely will not buy him toy guns or let him play with them, even if the neon color of the plastic practically glows. I won’t even let him fix his fingers into the shape of a gun.
In the Deep South, where I live, racism is more physical and visible than it is in other places. We live in the Delta, so we drive past cotton fields frequently. When the plants are blooming in late fall, my son points out how beautiful the acres of fluffy white bolls look. He’s right, but at the same time I feel the need to remind him that people with skin like ours were forced to pick that cotton by hand for years and years.
It makes me mad to think that I have to explain all of these harsh realities to my child while others are subtly teaching their children ideas that continue to dehumanize people of color. I imagine them around the dinner table, parroting tropes about black laziness and welfare fraud, talking of “those people” and asking why they don’t just help themselves. Some wonder aloud whether the country would be better if we had never had a black president. Maybe there is some cosmic parenting dynamic at play: For every adult who is trying to train his or her children to confront racial intolerance, there is another teaching his or her children how to perpetuate and preserve it.
Next month will be the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. My son is now 7 years old, and I plan to take him to a commemoration at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis. He’s been once before. The museum is built right onto the Lorraine Motel, and I have explained to my son that the wreath on the balcony marks the precise spot where King had been standing when he was shot.
I want to tell my child that today life is better for black people. It is certainly different. People of color can enter any public building. We can make meaningful movies that bring in a billion dollars. We can even be president. At the same time, I have to prepare my black son for a nation still gripped by the myth of white supremacy. The best I can do, I’ve concluded, is err on the side of honesty. If my black son has to learn that society will hate him, then let him hear about it from someone who unconditionally loves him.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
- JEMAR TISBY is the president of The Witness: A Black Christian Collective. He is a Ph.D. student in history at the University of Mississippi.
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Lynching Memorial In Alabama Remembers The Victims Of Unacknowledged Terror
April 26, 20188:52 AM ET
SAMANTHA RAPHELSON
Twitter
The National Memorial for Peace and Justice sits on six acres facing the Alabama state capital. Eight hundred steel blocks hang from the ceiling, bearing the names of 4,400 victims of one of the least-recognized racist atrocities in American history.
This is the first national memorial to the victims of lynching in the United states and it opens Thursday in Montgomery, Ala.
The memorial is the vision of Bryan Stevenson, the founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, a non-profit organization that documented the lynching of thousands of African-Americans across the South from 1877 to 1950.
One of those victims was Wes Johnson, who was lynched in Tumbleton, Ala., in 1937 after being falsely accused of raping a white woman.
Faye Walker Howell, the distant cousin of Johnson who investigated his death for her film, Tumbleton Road, tells Here & Now's Robin Young the memorial is finally bringing to light the mass killings that are fading from the American consciousness.
The victims "had been forgotten about, and so this memorial will bring it to the public attention," she says."It means that the world knows about Wes in a good way because they can see that he's actually being recognized for a crime that he didn't commit."
Each dangling column is separated by county and lists of the name of each person who was killed there. Another exhibit features bell jars filled with dirt from the site of each lynching and also bearing the names of those killed.
Stevenson, who was inspired by the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin and the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg, says he wanted the memorial to capture just how brutal the targeted killing of black people was in Jim Crow South.
Stevenson told NPR. "They wanted to lift up this violence this terror this tragedy for others to see."
The suspended columns are made of Corten steel, which is a material that rusts over time, making them appear like the bloody corpses they are meant to represent. Outside the main memorial pavilion, identical steel columns are placed with the goal of inspiring individuals to claim them for display in their respective counties.
Michael Murphy, the memorial arcmhitect, told Here & Now's Meghna Chakrabarti in 2016 that the idea of invoking healing informed the design of the memorial.
"We thought not about just having a statue or a place to visit that would stay the same but one that would change over time," he says. "And that very DNA of having markers that could be removed from the site and placed in other counties throughout the country where these killings occurred, allowed us to create a memorial that was active — one that would engage the communities where these atrocities that occurred."
Stevenson echoed this view when he told CBS This Morning in 2016 that he hopes this memorial will force Americans to confront the painful legacy of lynching.
"We have created a narrative of denial," Stevenson said. "We think if we own up to our mistakes, something bad is going to happen to us. We're going to get punished. And I'm not doing these projects because I want to punish America. I want us to be liberated from the chains that this history has created."
https://www.npr.org/2018/04/26/6057...emembers-the-victims-of-unacknowledged-terror
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April 26, 20188:52 AM ET
SAMANTHA RAPHELSON
The National Memorial for Peace and Justice sits on six acres facing the Alabama state capital. Eight hundred steel blocks hang from the ceiling, bearing the names of 4,400 victims of one of the least-recognized racist atrocities in American history.
This is the first national memorial to the victims of lynching in the United states and it opens Thursday in Montgomery, Ala.
The memorial is the vision of Bryan Stevenson, the founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, a non-profit organization that documented the lynching of thousands of African-Americans across the South from 1877 to 1950.
One of those victims was Wes Johnson, who was lynched in Tumbleton, Ala., in 1937 after being falsely accused of raping a white woman.
Faye Walker Howell, the distant cousin of Johnson who investigated his death for her film, Tumbleton Road, tells Here & Now's Robin Young the memorial is finally bringing to light the mass killings that are fading from the American consciousness.
The victims "had been forgotten about, and so this memorial will bring it to the public attention," she says."It means that the world knows about Wes in a good way because they can see that he's actually being recognized for a crime that he didn't commit."
Each dangling column is separated by county and lists of the name of each person who was killed there. Another exhibit features bell jars filled with dirt from the site of each lynching and also bearing the names of those killed.
Stevenson, who was inspired by the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin and the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg, says he wanted the memorial to capture just how brutal the targeted killing of black people was in Jim Crow South.
Stevenson told NPR. "They wanted to lift up this violence this terror this tragedy for others to see."
The suspended columns are made of Corten steel, which is a material that rusts over time, making them appear like the bloody corpses they are meant to represent. Outside the main memorial pavilion, identical steel columns are placed with the goal of inspiring individuals to claim them for display in their respective counties.
Michael Murphy, the memorial arcmhitect, told Here & Now's Meghna Chakrabarti in 2016 that the idea of invoking healing informed the design of the memorial.
"We thought not about just having a statue or a place to visit that would stay the same but one that would change over time," he says. "And that very DNA of having markers that could be removed from the site and placed in other counties throughout the country where these killings occurred, allowed us to create a memorial that was active — one that would engage the communities where these atrocities that occurred."
Stevenson echoed this view when he told CBS This Morning in 2016 that he hopes this memorial will force Americans to confront the painful legacy of lynching.
"We have created a narrative of denial," Stevenson said. "We think if we own up to our mistakes, something bad is going to happen to us. We're going to get punished. And I'm not doing these projects because I want to punish America. I want us to be liberated from the chains that this history has created."
https://www.npr.org/2018/04/26/6057...emembers-the-victims-of-unacknowledged-terror
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Before Central Park:
The Story of Seneca Village
Before Central Park was created, the landscape along what is now the Park’s perimeter from West 82nd to West 89th Street was the site of Seneca Village, a community of predominantly African-Americans, many of whom owned property. By 1855, the village consisted of approximately 225 residents, made up of roughly two-thirds African-Americans, one-third Irish immigrants, and a small number of individuals of German descent.
Seneca Village: The historic settlement that disappeared
A THRIVING AFRICAN-AMERICAN COMMUNITY
Before Central Park: The Story of Seneca… | Central Park Conservancy (centralparknyc.org)
The Story of Seneca Village
Before Central Park was created, the landscape along what is now the Park’s perimeter from West 82nd to West 89th Street was the site of Seneca Village, a community of predominantly African-Americans, many of whom owned property. By 1855, the village consisted of approximately 225 residents, made up of roughly two-thirds African-Americans, one-third Irish immigrants, and a small number of individuals of German descent.
Seneca Village: The historic settlement that disappeared
A THRIVING AFRICAN-AMERICAN COMMUNITY
Before Central Park: The Story of Seneca… | Central Park Conservancy (centralparknyc.org)
13 museums and cultural landmarks that showcase Black history in Philadelphia
Here’s where to go to learn about Black history in Philadelphia.
There are many places throughout the Philadelphia region to learn about Black history in the area, including the African American Museum in Philadelphia, which honors and celebrates African American history and present-day culture.Read moreAfrican American Museum in Philadelphia
13 museums and cultural landmarks that showcase Black history in Philadelphia (inquirer.com)
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Here’s where to go to learn about Black history in Philadelphia.
There are many places throughout the Philadelphia region to learn about Black history in the area, including the African American Museum in Philadelphia, which honors and celebrates African American history and present-day culture.Read moreAfrican American Museum in Philadelphia
- by Candis McLean, For the Inquirer
Published
Feb 3, 2022
13 museums and cultural landmarks that showcase Black history in Philadelphia (inquirer.com)
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Visit these 50 places during Black History Month
Sean Speers
Special for USA TODAY
From the moment the first African slaves arrived in the United States, through Reconstruction, war, Jim Crow and the civil rights movement, they've influenced American culture through the communities in which they lived, died, worked and worshipped.
Here are 50 places, some off the beaten path, where we can remember African-American history and contributions.
1.Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers National Monument
Wilberforce, Ohio
Officially established in March 2013, the monument memorializes Charles Young, who overcame racism and inequality to become a prominent military leader. Born into slavery, he would become the third African-American graduate of West Point and the highest ranking black officer in the U.S. Army until his death in 1922.
(513) 607-0315; www.nps.gov/chyo
2.Nicodemus National Historic Site
Nicodemus, Kansas
Named after an African-American slave who purchased his freedom, this site is where a predominately black community was established during the Reconstruction period after the Civil War. Buildings on the site include Township Hall, First Baptist Church and a schoolhouse, among others.
(785) 839-4233; www.nps.gov/nico
15 black history sites you don't know
3.Port Chicago
San Francisco
On July 17, 1944, 320 men, mostly African-American sailors, were instantly killed in a massive explosion. Two ships being loaded with ammunition for the Pacific theatre troops blew up, causing World War II's worst homefront disaster.
(925) 228-8860; www.nps.gov/poch
4.Pullman Historic District
Chicago
Pullman was an industrial town founded in May 1880 as the realization of George M. Pullman’s wish to create a model community for working-class people. The historic district includes the Pullman factory and the Hotel Florence, as well as the A. Philip Randolph Pullman Porter Museum, which is dedicated to African-American labor history.
(773) 785-8901; www.pullmanil.org
5.Allensworth State Park
Tulare County, Calif.
Established in 1908 by Col. Allen Allensworth and four other settlers, this was a community dedicated to improving the economic and social status of blacks. It is the only town in California to be founded, financed and governed by African Americans. The park features many restored buildings, including Allensworth's house, historic schoolhouse, Baptist church and library.
http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=583
6.Birmingham Civil Rights Institute
Birmingham, Ala.
Located in the city's Civil Rights District along with the 16th Street Baptist Church, Kelly Ingram Park and the Carver Theater, this is an interpretive museum which depicts the challenges of the American civil rights movement. The permanent exhibitions are a self-directed tour through Birmingham’s place in civil rights history.
(205) 328-9696;bcri.org
7.National Civil Rights Museum
Memphis
The museum complex is built around the former Lorraine Motel, where Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in April 1968. Also part of the museum is the building from which his assassin, James Earl Ray, fired the shot. The museum was renovated in 2014, increasing the number of exhibits.
901-521-9699;civilrightsmuseum.org
8.Fort Pillow State Park
Lauderdale County, Tenn.
This 1,642-acre state park preserves the site of the Battle of Fort Pillow, where 229 of the 262 black Union soldiers were massacred by Confederate troops. The park, a national historic landmark, is now home to an interpretive center and museum.
(615) 532-0001; tnstateparks.com/parks/about/fort-pillow
9. Beale Street Historic District
Memphis
Beale Street runs from the Mississippi River to East Street and is one of the birthplaces of the blues. Landmarks include the Beale Street Tap Room, Mr. Handy’s Blues Hall and King’s Palace Cafe.
(901) 526-0117; www.bealestreet.com
10. Negro Leagues Baseball Museum and American Jazz Museum
Kansas City, Mo.
The two museums share a building and as part of the 18th and Vine Historic District. The Negro League Baseball Museum was founded by a group of former Negro league players and honors both the players and the role of the league in the community. The American Jazz Museum features interactive exhibits and films in celebration of jazz and its history.
888-221-6526, nlbm.com; 816-474-8463;americanjazzmuseum.org
11. DuSable Museum of African American History
Chicago
Dedicated to the study and preservation of African-American history, culture and art, this museum opened in 1957 and is known for innovative exhibits like Red, White, Blue & Black: A History of Blacks in the Armed Services and Freedom, Resistance and the Journey Toward Equality.
773-947-0600;dusablemuseum.org
12. Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History
Detroit
Home to the largest permanent exhibit on African-American culture, this museum was founded in 1965. The museum regularly creates new exhibits to showcase more than 30,000 artifacts and archival materials, but the centerpiece is a permanent exhibit, And Still We Rise: Our Journey Through African-American History and Culture, containing 20 galleries.
313-494-5800; thewright.org
13. National Underground Railroad Freedom Center
Cincinnati
Opened in 2004 in downtown Cincinnati on the banks of the Ohio River, the museum attracts more than 100,000 visitors annually. The museum’s mission is to inspire everyone to take part in the modern struggles for freedom by connecting the lessons of the Underground Railroad with today’s freedom fighters.
877-648-4838;freedomcenter.org
14. Boston African American National Historic Site
Boston
Located in the the Beacon Hill neighborhood, this site is home to the Black Heritage Trail and the 1806 African Meeting House, the oldest standing African-American church in the United States. The site aims to memorialize the African-American community of 19th-century Boston that led the city and the nation in the fight against racial injustice.
(617) 742-5415; http://www.nps.gov/boaf/index.htm
15. Museum of the African Diaspora
San Francisco
This museum is dedicated to tracing our common roots to the African continent and emphasizes the global influence of African culture and art. One of the current exhibitions features 26 works, primarily sculptures and installation work, by the acclaimed Los Angeles artist Alison Saar.
415-358-7200;moadsf.org
16. Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African-American History and Culture
Baltimore
The building, opened in 2005 in honor of entrepreneur and philanthropist Reginald F. Lewis, was designed by renowned African-American architect Philip G. Freelon and inspired by a slave ship. The museum prides itself on being the best resource for information about the lives and struggles of African-American Marylanders.
443-263-1800;rflewismuseum.org
17. International Civil Rights Center & Museum
Greensboro, N.C.
The building was formerly a Woolworth department store best known as the site of the Feb. 1, 1960 sit-in initiated by four black North Carolina A&T State University students who were refused lunch-counter service because of their race. The museum is currently hosting the Americans Who Tell the Truth Traveling Exhibit of 52 larger-than-life sized portraits of African-American heroes.
336-274-9199;www.sitinmovement.org
18. Frederick Douglass National Historic Site
Washington, D.C.
The site honors the life and legacy of Frederick Douglass, and the view of the nation’s capital is not to be missed. The house, a colonial mansion where Douglass lived for the last 13 years of his life, can be seen on guided tours.
(202) 426-5961; http://www.nps.gov/frdo/index.htm
19. Lincoln Park
Washington, D.C
This park features the Mary McLeod Bethune memorial (the first monument to honor a black woman in a public park) and the Abraham Lincoln memorial. Frederick Douglass delivered a keynote address here before President Ulysses S. Grant, his cabinet and members of Congress, discussing both his approval and disapproval of the monument. Funds for the monument were collected solely from freed slaves, primarily African-American Union veterans.
(202) 673-2402; http://www.nps.gov/cahi/learn/historyculture/cahi_lincoln.htm
20. Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial
Washington, D.C.
Completed in August 2011, this solid granite sculpture of Martin Luther King, Jr., celebrating King's dedication to civil rights and racial equality, can be found in West Potomac Park near the National Mall.
202-246-6841; http://www.nps.gov/mlkm
21. John Coltrane House
Philadelphia
This was the home of American jazz legend John Coltrane from 1952 to 1967, two years before his death. Coltrane was a tenor saxophonist and a composer who played an important role in the development of jazz. The John Coltrane House is also the name of a nonprofit seeking to restore the house and operate it as a museum.
www.johncoltranehouse.org/
22. Historic Charleston's Religious and Community Buildings
Charleston, S.C.
The National Register of Historic Places travel itinerary describes 43 historic places in this extraordinary area, including the Old Slave Mart, Old Bethel Methodist, and Emanuel AME. The Old Slave Mart is the only known surviving building used as a slave auction gallery in South Carolina. Emanuel AME was built in 1891 and is the oldest African Methodist Episcopal church in the South.
http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/charleston/
23. Freedmen's Town National Historic District
Houston
This community, located in Houston’s Fourth Ward, was one of the first and the largest post-Civil War African American communities in Texas. It was founded by former Texas slaves who left their plantations upon hearing of liberation.
https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hpf01
24. African American Museum
Dallas
The museum was founded in 1974, originally a part of the Special Collections at Bishop College, a historically black college that closed in 1988. Now operating independently, the museum houses collections of fine and folk art by some of the foremost African-American artists and offers many exhibits and educational events aimed at families.
(214) 565-9026; aamdallas.org
25. African American Historic Resources of Alexandria
Alexandria, Va.
Landmarks include the Moses Hepburn Rowhouses (property of a prominent black citizen and businessman who had been born into slavery), Dr. Albert Johnson House (home of one of the city's first licensed black physicians) and the George L. Seaton House (home of the entrepreneur and civic and political leader). The district also houses the Alfred Street Baptist Church (1855), Beulah Baptist Church (1863) and Davis Chapel (1834), all of which are historic churches for the black community.
http://www.nps.gov/nr/feature/afam/2005/alexandria.htm
26. Boley Historic District
Boley, Okla.
Begun as a camp for black railroad workers, this is the site of an all-black community established in 1903. It is now recognized as a historic district and continues to function as a lively rural community.
http://www.preservationnation.org/f...ations/southwest/boley-historic-district.html
27. Dunbar Apartments
New York City
These apartments, located in Harlem, were constructed by John D. Rockefeller in 1926 to provide housing for African Americans. The first project of its kind, the apartments were home to W. E. B. Du Bois, Bill “Bojangles” Robinson and Paul Robeson, among others.
www.nps.gov/nr/travel/civilrights/ny2.htm
28. Kingsley Plantation
Jacksonville, Fla.
Kingsley Plantation was established in 1763, making it the oldest known plantation in Florida. Today, the plantation is a house museum, displaying exhibits and furnishings that depict life on the plantation in its earliest years.
(904) 641-7155; http://www.nps.gov/timu/historyculture/kp.htm
29. Fort Mose
St. Augustine, Fla.
Founded in 1738 by Spanish colonists, this is the site of the first free black settlement in the United States. It provided refuge for slaves fleeing from the British Colonies and was later one of the original stops of the Underground Railroad.
904-823-2232; http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/travel/american_latino_heritage/Fort_Mose.html
30. Berkley Square
Las Vegas
Berkley Square consists of 148 Ranch-style homes designed by African American architect Paul R. Williams. Provoked by poor housing conditions for African Americans in Las Vegas, the houses were built between 1954 and 1955 in the area historically known as Vegas’ Westside and comprised the first minority built subdivision in Nevada.
www.lasvegasnevada.gov/FactsStatistics/23163.htm
31. Pilgrim Baptist Church
Saint Paul, Minn.
Founded in 1863, Pilgrim Baptist is the oldest African American church in Minnesota.
651-227-3220; www.pilgrimbaptistchurch.org
32. Malcolm X House Site
Omaha, Neb.
Civil rights leader Malcolm X was born in a house on this site. Though the house has been demolished, there is a visitor center and historical marker worth checking out.
www.nps.gov/nr/travel/civilrights/ne1.htm
33. Philips Chapel Church
Las Cruces, N.M.
This century-old church, now called Christian Methodist Episcopal, is the oldest African-American church in southern New Mexico. It was founded when a group of American Americans and Hispanics joined to build a small chapel in what is now the Mesquite Historic District.
www.meetlascruces.com/Phillips-Chapel.html
34. Congdon Street Baptist Church
Providence, Rhode Island
Founded in 1819, Congdon Street Baptist Church is the oldest African-American church in Rhode Island. In 1971, it became listed on the National Register of Historic Places for its cultural and architectural significance.
(401) 421-4032; www.csbchurch.org
35. Langston Hughes House
New York City
This is the former home of James Langston Hughes (1902-1967), author, poet, and one of the foremost figures in the Harlem Renaissance.
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http://www.nps.gov/nr/feature/afam/2008/langston_hughes_house.htm
36. Underground Railroad Heritage Trail
Rochester, N.Y.
New York was a major destination for African Americans seeking freedom in the years leading up to the Civil War. This Heritage Trail follows the routes through western New York of thousands of enslaved people who made the journey to freedom. There are many interpretive centers, museums and historic sites along the trail.
518-474-0456; http://parks.ny.gov/historic-preservation/heritage-trails/underground-railroad/default.aspx
37. Harriet Tubman Residence & Harriet Tubman Home for the Aged
Auburn, N.Y.
The home of renowned Underground Railroad leader and the charity she founded for aged and indigent African Americans are both open to the public and illustrate Tubman’s life in Auburn between 1859 and 1913. Also worth visiting is the Thompson AME Zion Church on Parker Street, where she worshipped.
http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/underground/ny1.htm
38. Hinchliffe Stadium
Paterson, N.J.
This stadium was the home field for the New York Black Yankees between 1933 and 1937, and again from 1939 to 1945. Hinchliffe is one of the few surviving stadiums for black athletes during the segregation era.
http://www.hinchliffestadium.org/
39. Carver National Monument
Diamond, Mo.
Located at the birthplace and childhood home of the famous black scientist George Washington Carver, the monument is the first unit of the National Park Service dedicated to an African American. The park emphasized Carver’s role as a scientist and educator and offers a number of opportunities for children.
417-325-4151; http://www.nps.gov/gwca/index.htm
40. W.E.B. DuBois National Historic Site
Great Barrington, Mass.
This is the site of the W.E.B. Du Bois Homesite and W.E.B. Du Bois Center for Democracy and Social Justice and also offers a walking tour of downtown Great Barrington. The site celebrates the life and achievements of the prominent black sociologist, writer, and major civil rights activist.
413-717-6259; http://www.duboisnhs.org/
41. Royall House and Slave Quarters
Medford, Mass.
In the eighteenth century this was the home of the largest slaveholding family in Massachusetts. Now it is the site of a museum containing archaeological artifacts and household items and offering tours and educational programs.
781-396-9032; http://www.royallhouse.org/
42. Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Monument
Dorchester County, Md.
President Obama established this site as a national monument in March, 2013. It comprises several places of significance to Tubman's life, including the James Cook home site (where Tubman was hired out as a child) and the Jacobs Jackson home site (one of the first safe houses on the Underground Railroad).
267-838-2376; http://www.nps.gov/hatu/index.htm
43. Harriet Beecher Stowe House
Hartford, Conn.
This was the home of Harriet Beecher Stowe and the place where she wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin between 1850 and 1852. The center is dedicated to providing educational experiences and a place to witness and discuss aspects of the author’s life and legacy.
860-522-9258; https://www.harrietbeecherstowecenter.org/
44. Evergreen Plantation
Edgard, La.
With 37 buildings on the National Historic Register, including 22 slave cabins, Evergreen Plantation is the most intact plantation complex in the south and exemplifies major slave plantations of the Antebellum South. Parts of the movie Django Unchained were filmed at this plantation.
985.497.3837; http://evergreenplantation.org/
45. Martin Luther King Historic District
Atlanta
This historic site includes Martin Luther King, Jr.'s boyhood home, gravesite and the original Ebenezer Baptist Church where King was baptized and both his father and he were pastors. The visitor center contains a museum chronicling the American Civil Rights Movement and the instrumental role King played.
404-331-5190; http://www.nps.gov/malu
46. Fort Lyon
Bent County, Colo.
Some of the most active and important troops of the western U.S. in the 19th century were companies of African American soldiers known as Buffalo Soldiers. Several such companies were quartered here during the Indian Wars, fighting alongside the white soldiers. The historic site has served as an Army fort, a sanatorium, a neuropsychiatry facility, and a minimum security prison, but now acts as a rehabilitative transitional housing facility for homeless people with some form of substance abuse problem.
http://www.nps.gov/nr/feature/afam/2007/fortlyon.htm
47. Little Rock Central High School
This National Historic Site is recognized as where the first major confrontation over the implementation of the Brown v. Board of Education 1954 Supreme Court ruling occurred, in 1957. Nine African-American students were determined to attending the formerly all-white Central High School and made history with their persistence.
(501) 374-1957; http://www.nps.gov/chsc
48. Camp Nelson
Jessamine County, Kentucky
Camp Nelson was a large Union depot during the Civil War. For a time, Camp Nelson was Kentucky's largest recruitment and training center for black troops. Thousands of African Americans were emancipated from slavery in exchange for service in the Union army. Some of them brought their families to live at Camp Nelson.
(859) 881-5716; http://www.campnelson.org
49. WROX Museum
Clarksdale, Miss.
This museum is located in the building where WROX, a radio station hosted by the famous radio personality Early Wright and catering to an African-American audience, was broadcast. The station remains largely unaltered from the time of its operation.
662.645.8874; http://www.visitmississippi.org/events-and-points-of-interest/wrox-museum-27251
50. Banneker SW-9 Intermediate Boundary Stone
Washington, D.C.
One of the original forty boundary stones for Washington, D.C., this stone commemorates Benjamin Banneker. The free, self-educated African American was a farmer, astronomer, mathematician and almanac author. Banneker helped survey and plan Washington D.C.
www.aahistoricsitesva.org/items/show/33
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Sean Speers
Special for USA TODAY
From the moment the first African slaves arrived in the United States, through Reconstruction, war, Jim Crow and the civil rights movement, they've influenced American culture through the communities in which they lived, died, worked and worshipped.
Here are 50 places, some off the beaten path, where we can remember African-American history and contributions.
1.Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers National Monument
Wilberforce, Ohio
Officially established in March 2013, the monument memorializes Charles Young, who overcame racism and inequality to become a prominent military leader. Born into slavery, he would become the third African-American graduate of West Point and the highest ranking black officer in the U.S. Army until his death in 1922.
(513) 607-0315; www.nps.gov/chyo
2.Nicodemus National Historic Site
Nicodemus, Kansas
Named after an African-American slave who purchased his freedom, this site is where a predominately black community was established during the Reconstruction period after the Civil War. Buildings on the site include Township Hall, First Baptist Church and a schoolhouse, among others.
(785) 839-4233; www.nps.gov/nico
15 black history sites you don't know
3.Port Chicago
San Francisco
On July 17, 1944, 320 men, mostly African-American sailors, were instantly killed in a massive explosion. Two ships being loaded with ammunition for the Pacific theatre troops blew up, causing World War II's worst homefront disaster.
(925) 228-8860; www.nps.gov/poch
4.Pullman Historic District
Chicago
Pullman was an industrial town founded in May 1880 as the realization of George M. Pullman’s wish to create a model community for working-class people. The historic district includes the Pullman factory and the Hotel Florence, as well as the A. Philip Randolph Pullman Porter Museum, which is dedicated to African-American labor history.
(773) 785-8901; www.pullmanil.org
5.Allensworth State Park
Tulare County, Calif.
Established in 1908 by Col. Allen Allensworth and four other settlers, this was a community dedicated to improving the economic and social status of blacks. It is the only town in California to be founded, financed and governed by African Americans. The park features many restored buildings, including Allensworth's house, historic schoolhouse, Baptist church and library.
http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=583
6.Birmingham Civil Rights Institute
Birmingham, Ala.
Located in the city's Civil Rights District along with the 16th Street Baptist Church, Kelly Ingram Park and the Carver Theater, this is an interpretive museum which depicts the challenges of the American civil rights movement. The permanent exhibitions are a self-directed tour through Birmingham’s place in civil rights history.
(205) 328-9696;bcri.org
7.National Civil Rights Museum
Memphis
The museum complex is built around the former Lorraine Motel, where Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in April 1968. Also part of the museum is the building from which his assassin, James Earl Ray, fired the shot. The museum was renovated in 2014, increasing the number of exhibits.
901-521-9699;civilrightsmuseum.org
8.Fort Pillow State Park
Lauderdale County, Tenn.
This 1,642-acre state park preserves the site of the Battle of Fort Pillow, where 229 of the 262 black Union soldiers were massacred by Confederate troops. The park, a national historic landmark, is now home to an interpretive center and museum.
(615) 532-0001; tnstateparks.com/parks/about/fort-pillow
9. Beale Street Historic District
Memphis
Beale Street runs from the Mississippi River to East Street and is one of the birthplaces of the blues. Landmarks include the Beale Street Tap Room, Mr. Handy’s Blues Hall and King’s Palace Cafe.
(901) 526-0117; www.bealestreet.com
10. Negro Leagues Baseball Museum and American Jazz Museum
Kansas City, Mo.
The two museums share a building and as part of the 18th and Vine Historic District. The Negro League Baseball Museum was founded by a group of former Negro league players and honors both the players and the role of the league in the community. The American Jazz Museum features interactive exhibits and films in celebration of jazz and its history.
888-221-6526, nlbm.com; 816-474-8463;americanjazzmuseum.org
11. DuSable Museum of African American History
Chicago
Dedicated to the study and preservation of African-American history, culture and art, this museum opened in 1957 and is known for innovative exhibits like Red, White, Blue & Black: A History of Blacks in the Armed Services and Freedom, Resistance and the Journey Toward Equality.
773-947-0600;dusablemuseum.org
12. Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History
Detroit
Home to the largest permanent exhibit on African-American culture, this museum was founded in 1965. The museum regularly creates new exhibits to showcase more than 30,000 artifacts and archival materials, but the centerpiece is a permanent exhibit, And Still We Rise: Our Journey Through African-American History and Culture, containing 20 galleries.
313-494-5800; thewright.org
13. National Underground Railroad Freedom Center
Cincinnati
Opened in 2004 in downtown Cincinnati on the banks of the Ohio River, the museum attracts more than 100,000 visitors annually. The museum’s mission is to inspire everyone to take part in the modern struggles for freedom by connecting the lessons of the Underground Railroad with today’s freedom fighters.
877-648-4838;freedomcenter.org
14. Boston African American National Historic Site
Boston
Located in the the Beacon Hill neighborhood, this site is home to the Black Heritage Trail and the 1806 African Meeting House, the oldest standing African-American church in the United States. The site aims to memorialize the African-American community of 19th-century Boston that led the city and the nation in the fight against racial injustice.
(617) 742-5415; http://www.nps.gov/boaf/index.htm
15. Museum of the African Diaspora
San Francisco
This museum is dedicated to tracing our common roots to the African continent and emphasizes the global influence of African culture and art. One of the current exhibitions features 26 works, primarily sculptures and installation work, by the acclaimed Los Angeles artist Alison Saar.
415-358-7200;moadsf.org
16. Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African-American History and Culture
Baltimore
The building, opened in 2005 in honor of entrepreneur and philanthropist Reginald F. Lewis, was designed by renowned African-American architect Philip G. Freelon and inspired by a slave ship. The museum prides itself on being the best resource for information about the lives and struggles of African-American Marylanders.
443-263-1800;rflewismuseum.org
17. International Civil Rights Center & Museum
Greensboro, N.C.
The building was formerly a Woolworth department store best known as the site of the Feb. 1, 1960 sit-in initiated by four black North Carolina A&T State University students who were refused lunch-counter service because of their race. The museum is currently hosting the Americans Who Tell the Truth Traveling Exhibit of 52 larger-than-life sized portraits of African-American heroes.
336-274-9199;www.sitinmovement.org
18. Frederick Douglass National Historic Site
Washington, D.C.
The site honors the life and legacy of Frederick Douglass, and the view of the nation’s capital is not to be missed. The house, a colonial mansion where Douglass lived for the last 13 years of his life, can be seen on guided tours.
(202) 426-5961; http://www.nps.gov/frdo/index.htm
19. Lincoln Park
Washington, D.C
This park features the Mary McLeod Bethune memorial (the first monument to honor a black woman in a public park) and the Abraham Lincoln memorial. Frederick Douglass delivered a keynote address here before President Ulysses S. Grant, his cabinet and members of Congress, discussing both his approval and disapproval of the monument. Funds for the monument were collected solely from freed slaves, primarily African-American Union veterans.
(202) 673-2402; http://www.nps.gov/cahi/learn/historyculture/cahi_lincoln.htm
20. Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial
Washington, D.C.
Completed in August 2011, this solid granite sculpture of Martin Luther King, Jr., celebrating King's dedication to civil rights and racial equality, can be found in West Potomac Park near the National Mall.
202-246-6841; http://www.nps.gov/mlkm
21. John Coltrane House
Philadelphia
This was the home of American jazz legend John Coltrane from 1952 to 1967, two years before his death. Coltrane was a tenor saxophonist and a composer who played an important role in the development of jazz. The John Coltrane House is also the name of a nonprofit seeking to restore the house and operate it as a museum.
www.johncoltranehouse.org/
22. Historic Charleston's Religious and Community Buildings
Charleston, S.C.
The National Register of Historic Places travel itinerary describes 43 historic places in this extraordinary area, including the Old Slave Mart, Old Bethel Methodist, and Emanuel AME. The Old Slave Mart is the only known surviving building used as a slave auction gallery in South Carolina. Emanuel AME was built in 1891 and is the oldest African Methodist Episcopal church in the South.
http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/charleston/
23. Freedmen's Town National Historic District
Houston
This community, located in Houston’s Fourth Ward, was one of the first and the largest post-Civil War African American communities in Texas. It was founded by former Texas slaves who left their plantations upon hearing of liberation.
https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hpf01
24. African American Museum
Dallas
The museum was founded in 1974, originally a part of the Special Collections at Bishop College, a historically black college that closed in 1988. Now operating independently, the museum houses collections of fine and folk art by some of the foremost African-American artists and offers many exhibits and educational events aimed at families.
(214) 565-9026; aamdallas.org
25. African American Historic Resources of Alexandria
Alexandria, Va.
Landmarks include the Moses Hepburn Rowhouses (property of a prominent black citizen and businessman who had been born into slavery), Dr. Albert Johnson House (home of one of the city's first licensed black physicians) and the George L. Seaton House (home of the entrepreneur and civic and political leader). The district also houses the Alfred Street Baptist Church (1855), Beulah Baptist Church (1863) and Davis Chapel (1834), all of which are historic churches for the black community.
http://www.nps.gov/nr/feature/afam/2005/alexandria.htm
26. Boley Historic District
Boley, Okla.
Begun as a camp for black railroad workers, this is the site of an all-black community established in 1903. It is now recognized as a historic district and continues to function as a lively rural community.
http://www.preservationnation.org/f...ations/southwest/boley-historic-district.html
27. Dunbar Apartments
New York City
These apartments, located in Harlem, were constructed by John D. Rockefeller in 1926 to provide housing for African Americans. The first project of its kind, the apartments were home to W. E. B. Du Bois, Bill “Bojangles” Robinson and Paul Robeson, among others.
www.nps.gov/nr/travel/civilrights/ny2.htm
28. Kingsley Plantation
Jacksonville, Fla.
Kingsley Plantation was established in 1763, making it the oldest known plantation in Florida. Today, the plantation is a house museum, displaying exhibits and furnishings that depict life on the plantation in its earliest years.
(904) 641-7155; http://www.nps.gov/timu/historyculture/kp.htm
29. Fort Mose
St. Augustine, Fla.
Founded in 1738 by Spanish colonists, this is the site of the first free black settlement in the United States. It provided refuge for slaves fleeing from the British Colonies and was later one of the original stops of the Underground Railroad.
904-823-2232; http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/travel/american_latino_heritage/Fort_Mose.html
30. Berkley Square
Las Vegas
Berkley Square consists of 148 Ranch-style homes designed by African American architect Paul R. Williams. Provoked by poor housing conditions for African Americans in Las Vegas, the houses were built between 1954 and 1955 in the area historically known as Vegas’ Westside and comprised the first minority built subdivision in Nevada.
www.lasvegasnevada.gov/FactsStatistics/23163.htm
31. Pilgrim Baptist Church
Saint Paul, Minn.
Founded in 1863, Pilgrim Baptist is the oldest African American church in Minnesota.
651-227-3220; www.pilgrimbaptistchurch.org
32. Malcolm X House Site
Omaha, Neb.
Civil rights leader Malcolm X was born in a house on this site. Though the house has been demolished, there is a visitor center and historical marker worth checking out.
www.nps.gov/nr/travel/civilrights/ne1.htm
33. Philips Chapel Church
Las Cruces, N.M.
This century-old church, now called Christian Methodist Episcopal, is the oldest African-American church in southern New Mexico. It was founded when a group of American Americans and Hispanics joined to build a small chapel in what is now the Mesquite Historic District.
www.meetlascruces.com/Phillips-Chapel.html
34. Congdon Street Baptist Church
Providence, Rhode Island
Founded in 1819, Congdon Street Baptist Church is the oldest African-American church in Rhode Island. In 1971, it became listed on the National Register of Historic Places for its cultural and architectural significance.
(401) 421-4032; www.csbchurch.org
35. Langston Hughes House
New York City
This is the former home of James Langston Hughes (1902-1967), author, poet, and one of the foremost figures in the Harlem Renaissance.
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http://www.nps.gov/nr/feature/afam/2008/langston_hughes_house.htm
36. Underground Railroad Heritage Trail
Rochester, N.Y.
New York was a major destination for African Americans seeking freedom in the years leading up to the Civil War. This Heritage Trail follows the routes through western New York of thousands of enslaved people who made the journey to freedom. There are many interpretive centers, museums and historic sites along the trail.
518-474-0456; http://parks.ny.gov/historic-preservation/heritage-trails/underground-railroad/default.aspx
37. Harriet Tubman Residence & Harriet Tubman Home for the Aged
Auburn, N.Y.
The home of renowned Underground Railroad leader and the charity she founded for aged and indigent African Americans are both open to the public and illustrate Tubman’s life in Auburn between 1859 and 1913. Also worth visiting is the Thompson AME Zion Church on Parker Street, where she worshipped.
http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/underground/ny1.htm
38. Hinchliffe Stadium
Paterson, N.J.
This stadium was the home field for the New York Black Yankees between 1933 and 1937, and again from 1939 to 1945. Hinchliffe is one of the few surviving stadiums for black athletes during the segregation era.
http://www.hinchliffestadium.org/
39. Carver National Monument
Diamond, Mo.
Located at the birthplace and childhood home of the famous black scientist George Washington Carver, the monument is the first unit of the National Park Service dedicated to an African American. The park emphasized Carver’s role as a scientist and educator and offers a number of opportunities for children.
417-325-4151; http://www.nps.gov/gwca/index.htm
40. W.E.B. DuBois National Historic Site
Great Barrington, Mass.
This is the site of the W.E.B. Du Bois Homesite and W.E.B. Du Bois Center for Democracy and Social Justice and also offers a walking tour of downtown Great Barrington. The site celebrates the life and achievements of the prominent black sociologist, writer, and major civil rights activist.
413-717-6259; http://www.duboisnhs.org/
41. Royall House and Slave Quarters
Medford, Mass.
In the eighteenth century this was the home of the largest slaveholding family in Massachusetts. Now it is the site of a museum containing archaeological artifacts and household items and offering tours and educational programs.
781-396-9032; http://www.royallhouse.org/
42. Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Monument
Dorchester County, Md.
President Obama established this site as a national monument in March, 2013. It comprises several places of significance to Tubman's life, including the James Cook home site (where Tubman was hired out as a child) and the Jacobs Jackson home site (one of the first safe houses on the Underground Railroad).
267-838-2376; http://www.nps.gov/hatu/index.htm
43. Harriet Beecher Stowe House
Hartford, Conn.
This was the home of Harriet Beecher Stowe and the place where she wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin between 1850 and 1852. The center is dedicated to providing educational experiences and a place to witness and discuss aspects of the author’s life and legacy.
860-522-9258; https://www.harrietbeecherstowecenter.org/
44. Evergreen Plantation
Edgard, La.
With 37 buildings on the National Historic Register, including 22 slave cabins, Evergreen Plantation is the most intact plantation complex in the south and exemplifies major slave plantations of the Antebellum South. Parts of the movie Django Unchained were filmed at this plantation.
985.497.3837; http://evergreenplantation.org/
45. Martin Luther King Historic District
Atlanta
This historic site includes Martin Luther King, Jr.'s boyhood home, gravesite and the original Ebenezer Baptist Church where King was baptized and both his father and he were pastors. The visitor center contains a museum chronicling the American Civil Rights Movement and the instrumental role King played.
404-331-5190; http://www.nps.gov/malu
46. Fort Lyon
Bent County, Colo.
Some of the most active and important troops of the western U.S. in the 19th century were companies of African American soldiers known as Buffalo Soldiers. Several such companies were quartered here during the Indian Wars, fighting alongside the white soldiers. The historic site has served as an Army fort, a sanatorium, a neuropsychiatry facility, and a minimum security prison, but now acts as a rehabilitative transitional housing facility for homeless people with some form of substance abuse problem.
http://www.nps.gov/nr/feature/afam/2007/fortlyon.htm
47. Little Rock Central High School
This National Historic Site is recognized as where the first major confrontation over the implementation of the Brown v. Board of Education 1954 Supreme Court ruling occurred, in 1957. Nine African-American students were determined to attending the formerly all-white Central High School and made history with their persistence.
(501) 374-1957; http://www.nps.gov/chsc
48. Camp Nelson
Jessamine County, Kentucky
Camp Nelson was a large Union depot during the Civil War. For a time, Camp Nelson was Kentucky's largest recruitment and training center for black troops. Thousands of African Americans were emancipated from slavery in exchange for service in the Union army. Some of them brought their families to live at Camp Nelson.
(859) 881-5716; http://www.campnelson.org
49. WROX Museum
Clarksdale, Miss.
This museum is located in the building where WROX, a radio station hosted by the famous radio personality Early Wright and catering to an African-American audience, was broadcast. The station remains largely unaltered from the time of its operation.
662.645.8874; http://www.visitmississippi.org/events-and-points-of-interest/wrox-museum-27251
50. Banneker SW-9 Intermediate Boundary Stone
Washington, D.C.
One of the original forty boundary stones for Washington, D.C., this stone commemorates Benjamin Banneker. The free, self-educated African American was a farmer, astronomer, mathematician and almanac author. Banneker helped survey and plan Washington D.C.
www.aahistoricsitesva.org/items/show/33
https://popup.taboola.com/
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6 Powerful Places to Immerse Yourself in African American Heritage
African American contributions to the history and culture of the United States are vast and deeply interwoven in our collective national heritage. Many of our national parks preserve these stories and the places where they unfolded. Some parks tell them as part of the site’s broader chronicle while others were designated to specifically interpret the impact of the events that shaped our history at the site. Immerse yourself in these powerful national parks where African American heritage is preserved and honored.
1. AFRICAN BURIAL GROUND NATIONAL MONUMENT
2. CANE RIVER CREOLE NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK AND HERITAGE AREA
Louisiana's Cane River region is a unique place, shaped as much by the river itself as by the many cultures that have settled there. Cane River Creole National Historical Park and Heritage Area preserves the rich heritage of Creole people, a diverse group descended from Native Americans, enslaved Africans, and European settlers of all kinds. The park includes the Oakland and Magnolia plantations, both of which date back to the 18th century.
3. NATCHEZ NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK
LongLiveRock, Wikimedia Commons
On the banks of the Mississippi River, Natchez National Historical Park preserves sites that reflect every era of American history. It includes the historic home of William Johnson, an African American who was freed from slavery in 1820 at the age of 11 and became a respected businessman before his murder in 1851. Johnson's diary was published in 1951, providing unique and detailed insight into African American life in the 19th century, and his house was opened by the National Park Service as a museum in 2005.
4. NICODEMUS NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE
National Park Service
On the plains of Kansas, Nicodemus National Historic Site preserves the remnants of a town established by African Americans during the period of reconstruction following the Civil War. Kansas was seen as a "promised land" for formerly enslaved African Americans, many of whom headed west looking for a new life after the war. Nicodemus is the only remaining settlement of its kind west of the Mississippi River.
5. PULLMAN NATIONAL MONUMENT
Pullman National Monument became Chicago's first national park unit in 2015, thanks in large part to funding from the National Park Foundation. The monument recognizes and explores the history of the Chicago laborers of all races who worked for the Pullman Car Company during the late 1800s. In an era marred by segregation and poor working conditions, the Pullman Strike of 1894 changed the face of labor in America forever.
6. YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK
National Park Service
African American army regiments, formed after the Civil War and given the name Buffalo Soldiers by Plains Indians, were crucial to westward expansion during the late 19th century. What is not as widely known is that they were also among the first park rangers. In places like Yosemite National Park, Buffalo Soldiers were early stewards of our national parks, blazing trails and building structures that, in many cases, are still used today.
Across the country and throughout our history, the contributions made by African Americans have been a driving force behind American development and innovation. National parks proudly celebrate African American history throughout the year, and these six parks are just some of the places where you can learn about how African Americans helped shaped the United States.
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10 National Parks that Honor Black History
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THE PARKS NEED YOUR SU
African American Heritage: 6 Powerful Places to Visit (nationalparks.org)
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African American contributions to the history and culture of the United States are vast and deeply interwoven in our collective national heritage. Many of our national parks preserve these stories and the places where they unfolded. Some parks tell them as part of the site’s broader chronicle while others were designated to specifically interpret the impact of the events that shaped our history at the site. Immerse yourself in these powerful national parks where African American heritage is preserved and honored.
1. AFRICAN BURIAL GROUND NATIONAL MONUMENT
The discovery of an African burial ground in lower Manhattan was a surprise to the workers who unearthed it in 1991 as they prepared to construct a federal office building. More shocking still was its scope: Hundreds of remains were found dating from the 1690s through 1794. It is estimated that at one time, as many as 15,000 African Americans — many of them slaves — were buried at this site.
2. CANE RIVER CREOLE NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK AND HERITAGE AREA
Louisiana's Cane River region is a unique place, shaped as much by the river itself as by the many cultures that have settled there. Cane River Creole National Historical Park and Heritage Area preserves the rich heritage of Creole people, a diverse group descended from Native Americans, enslaved Africans, and European settlers of all kinds. The park includes the Oakland and Magnolia plantations, both of which date back to the 18th century.
3. NATCHEZ NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK
LongLiveRock, Wikimedia Commons
On the banks of the Mississippi River, Natchez National Historical Park preserves sites that reflect every era of American history. It includes the historic home of William Johnson, an African American who was freed from slavery in 1820 at the age of 11 and became a respected businessman before his murder in 1851. Johnson's diary was published in 1951, providing unique and detailed insight into African American life in the 19th century, and his house was opened by the National Park Service as a museum in 2005.
4. NICODEMUS NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE
National Park Service
On the plains of Kansas, Nicodemus National Historic Site preserves the remnants of a town established by African Americans during the period of reconstruction following the Civil War. Kansas was seen as a "promised land" for formerly enslaved African Americans, many of whom headed west looking for a new life after the war. Nicodemus is the only remaining settlement of its kind west of the Mississippi River.
5. PULLMAN NATIONAL MONUMENT
Pullman National Monument became Chicago's first national park unit in 2015, thanks in large part to funding from the National Park Foundation. The monument recognizes and explores the history of the Chicago laborers of all races who worked for the Pullman Car Company during the late 1800s. In an era marred by segregation and poor working conditions, the Pullman Strike of 1894 changed the face of labor in America forever.
6. YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK
National Park Service
African American army regiments, formed after the Civil War and given the name Buffalo Soldiers by Plains Indians, were crucial to westward expansion during the late 19th century. What is not as widely known is that they were also among the first park rangers. In places like Yosemite National Park, Buffalo Soldiers were early stewards of our national parks, blazing trails and building structures that, in many cases, are still used today.
Across the country and throughout our history, the contributions made by African Americans have been a driving force behind American development and innovation. National parks proudly celebrate African American history throughout the year, and these six parks are just some of the places where you can learn about how African Americans helped shaped the United States.
RELATED ARTICLES
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10 National Parks that Honor Black History
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African American Heritage: 6 Powerful Places to Visit (nationalparks.org)
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Officials break ground on Boston Common MLK memorial
April 28, 2022
Local politicians, dignitaries and founding members of King Boston ceremoniously break ground for the King Boston memorial, "The Embrace," at the Boston Common. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)
On what would have been Coretta Scott King’s 95th birthday, in the place where she and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. fell in love, the city of Boston broke ground on a monument that will honor Black love.
City and state leaders gathered en masse for the groundbreaking of “The Embrace,” where a 20-foot-high bronze sculpture of clasped hands will be installed.
Hank Willis Thomas and MASS Design Group's proposed memorial. (Courtesy City of Boston)
More than one person noted how very difficult it was to go through the permitting process and to $10.5 million so that a new memorial could be placed in the country’s oldest public park. The last project to come to fruition on Boston Common was the memorial to Robert Gould Shaw and 54th Regiment, which was dedicated in 1897, according to Rev. Liz Walker, senior pastor at Roxbury Presbyterian Church. Walker -- together with King Boston, a non-profit organization — helped convene the art committee that began shepherding the design process for "The Embrace." That group of visual artists, educators, and curators coordinated meetings in neighborhoods across Boston to get public input on the best ways to celebrate and advance the Kings’ work in Boston.
“We are making history today, but it is not enough to know history. It must inspire, provoke, elevate, anger, and teach us. History must move us and change us,” Walker said. “We are at a critical moment in this nation's history. As optimistic as I would like to be, none of us is certain where this country is headed. These are troubled times, but this day gives us great hope. That we will learn from and embrace the lessons from our past and then act on them.”
She challenged those in the audience telling them they have a “greater responsibility to do something more for freedom, justice and love.” Other speakers at the event included Gov. Charlie Baker, U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins, former State Representative Marie St. Fleur and Mayor Michelle Wu. Wu spoke of belonging, of what it felt like to grow up in an immigrant family and to wonder if spaces were built to include them. She said that today in this season of breaking fasts, they got to break ground on something that would root them more to their community and to their purpose as a city.
“Whether you're rooted here six generations deep, whether you just came to this country, whether you're here for school. Planting your feet on the ground. This is a city that is a city for everyone,” Wu said. We're a city that will take on the legacy that Dr. King and Ms. Coretta Scott King fought for, waging war against injustice and racism in all its forms, in every corner, but also doing so from a place of love.”
Hank Willis Thomas, the artist who designed “The Embrace,” also showed up to acknowledge this momentous occasion.
“I wanted to take a moment to register gratitude for not only [Coretta Scott King] and her parents and her ancestors, but all of our ancestors who have walked in this space with hopes and dreams for millennia,” Thomas said. “And all of the descendants will now walk by this place. And actually, because of the work that so many people have done here, reflect on the possibility of love.”
The memorial will be unveiled to the public on Martin Luther King Day holiday in 2023.
Imari Jeffries, executive director of King Boston, speak to the hundreds that gathered for the groundbreaking ceremony. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)
King Boston founder and co-chair Paul English speaks during the groundbreaking ceremony for the King memorial. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)
Mayor Michelle Wu speaks during the groundbreaking ceremony for the King memorial. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)
Imari Jeffries, executive director of King Boston, jokes with Gov. Charlie Baker before he speaks during the groundbreaking ceremony for the King memorial. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)
Gov. Charlie Baker speaks during the groundbreaking ceremony for the King memorial. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)
April 28, 2022
On what would have been Coretta Scott King’s 95th birthday, in the place where she and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. fell in love, the city of Boston broke ground on a monument that will honor Black love.
City and state leaders gathered en masse for the groundbreaking of “The Embrace,” where a 20-foot-high bronze sculpture of clasped hands will be installed.
More than one person noted how very difficult it was to go through the permitting process and to $10.5 million so that a new memorial could be placed in the country’s oldest public park. The last project to come to fruition on Boston Common was the memorial to Robert Gould Shaw and 54th Regiment, which was dedicated in 1897, according to Rev. Liz Walker, senior pastor at Roxbury Presbyterian Church. Walker -- together with King Boston, a non-profit organization — helped convene the art committee that began shepherding the design process for "The Embrace." That group of visual artists, educators, and curators coordinated meetings in neighborhoods across Boston to get public input on the best ways to celebrate and advance the Kings’ work in Boston.
“We are making history today, but it is not enough to know history. It must inspire, provoke, elevate, anger, and teach us. History must move us and change us,” Walker said. “We are at a critical moment in this nation's history. As optimistic as I would like to be, none of us is certain where this country is headed. These are troubled times, but this day gives us great hope. That we will learn from and embrace the lessons from our past and then act on them.”
She challenged those in the audience telling them they have a “greater responsibility to do something more for freedom, justice and love.” Other speakers at the event included Gov. Charlie Baker, U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins, former State Representative Marie St. Fleur and Mayor Michelle Wu. Wu spoke of belonging, of what it felt like to grow up in an immigrant family and to wonder if spaces were built to include them. She said that today in this season of breaking fasts, they got to break ground on something that would root them more to their community and to their purpose as a city.
“Whether you're rooted here six generations deep, whether you just came to this country, whether you're here for school. Planting your feet on the ground. This is a city that is a city for everyone,” Wu said. We're a city that will take on the legacy that Dr. King and Ms. Coretta Scott King fought for, waging war against injustice and racism in all its forms, in every corner, but also doing so from a place of love.”
Hank Willis Thomas, the artist who designed “The Embrace,” also showed up to acknowledge this momentous occasion.
“I wanted to take a moment to register gratitude for not only [Coretta Scott King] and her parents and her ancestors, but all of our ancestors who have walked in this space with hopes and dreams for millennia,” Thomas said. “And all of the descendants will now walk by this place. And actually, because of the work that so many people have done here, reflect on the possibility of love.”
The memorial will be unveiled to the public on Martin Luther King Day holiday in 2023.
Gov. Charlie Baker speaks during the groundbreaking ceremony for the King memorial. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)
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