Black History Month MMXXV: National Park Sites

As usual, I am excited to enter the best month of the year…February! From my childhood visiting U.S. National Park Service sties to my current obsession with filling up my National Parks Passport, I have remained a fan of one of the valuable resources in the United States. The impact of sites showcasing and examining Black history, celebrating the achievements of Black leaders in the U.S., and bringing to light inequalities have impacted my life and ignited my curiosity. While these sites are fantastic places that teach valuable lessons and remind us of important stories, the U.S. must mark so many more important sites for Black history across the states and territories.

This picture from one of the NPS websites that suggests sites marking Black History, shows troops during WWII. As I began to research NPS sites (beyond what I have seen) that mark Black history in the U.S., I thought about the impact of some of my favorite visits, which I will comment on more this month. Some of these sites include the Maggie Walker House (Richmond, Virginia), Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma (Alabama), Booker T. Washington site (Hardy, Virginia), Nicodemus (Kansas), and Martin Luther King, Jr.’s home (Atlanta, Georgia).

The picture above includes four generations of Maggie Walker’s family. Ajena Rogers is the Supervisory Park Ranger at the NPS site that celebrates Maggie and shares her legacy with visitors. In this video, Ajena speaks about her experiences, Black history and the NPS, and Maggie Walker.