Black Achievements Recognized: 123 National Sites Designated
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Vol. 29, No. 2 February 1984 COURIER Washington, D.C. The National Park Service Newsletter Black achievements recognized: 123 national sites designated By Grant W. Midgley Office of Public Affairs, WASO Gaining recognition for the contributions of their race to American society has been one facet of the long, upward struggle black people have waged to win freedom, equality and respect. The most important act of approval has been, of course, the recent designation of the birth date of Martin Luther King, Jr., as a national holiday. Yet 40 years before that the United States began, through the National Park System, to recognize the achievements of outstanding black Americans. Today there are six Park System units and two Affiliated Areas that honor the careers of black men and women. And NPS is responsible for the program under which 115 National Martin Luther King, Jr., best known black leader. Historic Landmarks have been designated that commemorate Afro-American history. Following are brief accounts of the Park System units and Affiliated Areas in the order in which they were Following the Civil War, the domestic chores—cooking, laundering authorized. Missouri-Kansas border was plagued and odd jobs. by outlaws preying on the residents. A raiding band took everything of value 1943: GEORGE WASHINGTON from the Carver farm, including Mary "I had an inordinate desire for CARVER NATIONAL and George. A hired tracker recovered knowledge, and especially music, MONUMENT is the birthplace and the baby George, who had been painting, flowers, and the sciences, boyhood home of the noted abandoned, but the Carvers never saw algebra being one of my favorite studies." —George Washington Carver agronomist. The site is located near Mary again. the little town of Diamond, in the George recovered his health on the southwestern corner of Missouri. farm, doing light chores, and he had George learned typing and The first recorded document relating time to spend outdoors, getting shorthand in a business school. Then, to Carver is a bill of sale for his acquainted with the wonders of nature after many disappointments and a try mother, Mary, when she was about and collecting. Encouraged to learn, he at farming that turned out badly, a 13. Late in the 1830s, when Moses left the farm when nearly a teenager to couple who recognized his talent Carver and his wife settled on 240 attend a school a few miles away. At helped him enter art school. Excellent acres near Diamond, Mary became that time he took the Carver name and in his studies, he soon transferred to part of that household. George was added Washington. He attended three Iowa Agricultural College, which today is the noted university at Ames. the second of her several children, but more schools to finish high school, his birthdate is not recorded. supporting himself by performing Continued on page 2. February is Black History Month Continued from page 1. He took a B.S. and an M.S. there, and just before finishing, received an offer from Booker T. Washington to become an instructor at Tuskegee Institute. There Carver found that years of using unwise farming methods had depleted Alabama soil, and that dependence upon cotton had subjected farmers to the whims of an unstable market. He issued bulletins, published by the institute and distributed free, encouraging farmers to adopt such practices as crop rotation and use of natural fertilizers. He put together an extension service and took new varieties of plants from an experimental farm out fo nearby communities. Though he worked with many crops, Carver became most famous for the peanut, for which he compiled a list of some 300 uses and by-products. He served at Tuskegee for more than 40 years and won an impressive number of honors. He died on January 5, 1943. The national monument site encompasses 210 acres. It includes the birthplace cabin site, a statue of the boy Carver, the relocated Moses Carver dwelling and the family cemetery. Beginning at the visitor George Washington Carver, noted agronomist. center, a self-guiding trail winds along the stream and through fields and woods that Carver walked as a boy. Armstrong, then recommended Booker "The great and prevailing idea that to take charge of a proposed Negro seemed to take possession of every one 1956: BOOKER T. School in Alabama. The school was was to prepare himself to lift up the WASHINGTON NATIONAL Tuskegee Normal and Industrial people at his home." MONUMENT preserves the Institute. The State provided $2,000 for —Booker T. Washington birthplace and early childhood home faculty but nothing for buildings, land of a boy, born to a slave-cook, who or equipment. Started with 30 students became a celebrated educator. The site in a shack and a dilapidated church, Washington had three wives (the is located in Franklin County, Va., not the institute prospered as Washington first two died young) and he fathered far from Roanoke. became well known and attracted a daughter and two sons. He died at The Oaks, the family home, in 1915, a Listed with other property simply as financial support. distinguished American citizen, an "Booker," the boy was freed at the Guided by his experience at honored educator and an advisor to end of the Civil War when he was 9. Hampton, Washington set three presidents. His third wife, Margaret, Then he joined a stepfather in West objectives for Tuskegee. The first was died there 10 years later. Virginia, where Booker worked as a to prepare educators to return to the coal miner for about 7 years. The wife plantation districts to show "how to On the 223-acre monument grounds of the mine owner then took him in as put new energy and new ideas into are many sites of the tobacco farm on a house boy. She was a strict farming as well as into the intellectual which Washington grew up. One may taskmaster, but encouraged him in his and moral and religious life of the follow the "Plantation Trail" through ambition to become educated. people." His second objective was to it, seeing farm animals at pasture, develop craft and occupational skills so restored cabins and other buildings, In 1872, he made his way to and places where stood some of the Hampton Institute in central Virginia, that students could get jobs in agriculture and trades. A third goal structures Washington knew. This was a school for ex-slaves, where, working the early environment that shaped the under great hardship, he was was to make education at Tuskegee "total," that is, to train the students in character of one who rose from slavery graduated with honors in 3 years. The to become a celebrated citizen. Hampton principal, Gen. Samuel C. all their activities to maintain high moral character, orderliness and cleanliness. Under his leadership, Tuskegee grew to a campus of 1500 students with an endowment of more than $2 million. 2 COURIER/Februarv 1984 1962: FREDERICK DOUGLASS the lot of blacks. "The opportunity to HOME, located in Washington, D.C., earn a dollar in a factory just now," he is the last residence of the runaway said, "is worth infinitely more than the slave who—self-educated—became a opportunity to spend a dollar in an noted abolitionist, speaker and writer. opera house." This meant training his Born some 40 years before Carver people to become industrial and Wasington, he faced different employees, tradesmen and farmers. issues that shaped his life's activities. In his drive to teach practical skills, He demanded an end to slavery and train teachers and make the school a urged political equality for all men and "civilizing influence," Washington women. siezed opportunities to use the He was born in Talbot County on institution for his training purposes. the Eastern Shore of Maryland in 1817 Buildings were needed, so students or 1818, child of a slave woman and made and laid bricks. The agricultural an unknown white man. His relatives products produced were used to feed and Douglass himself suffered at the needy among them. And by doing length under harsh and sadistic such chores they earned amounts overseers. But hired out as a carpenter toward tuition. to a shipbuilder in Baltimore, he met Frederick Douglass, noted abolitionist, George Washington Carver left the many free blacks, among them Anna speaker and writer. Iowa faculty to head a new Murray. Three years later, he escaped Department of Agriculture at to Baltimore to freedom in the North, Tuskegee. He worked there for 47 married Anna, and settled in where he could lie down to think or years. His development of numerous Massachusetts. To avoid slave rest. The Growlery was reconstructed uses for southern agricultural products trackers, he changed his name from in 1981. brought fame to the institute and won Bailey to Douglass, a character in His second wife, Helen, preserved him a reputation as an outstanding Walter Scott's "Lady of the Lake." Cedar Hill as a memorial. In 1900 she American scientist. Becoming friendly with William organized the Frederick Douglass Tuskegee prospered because its Lloyd Garrison and other abolitionists, Memorial and Historical Association, leader won widespread support, North he lectured throughout New York and which joined forces in 1916 with the and South, partly by preparing New England. National Association of Colored students to do useful work in a society He spoke and wrote with an Women's Clubs to open the house to which increasingly segregated itself original, vigorous style, and on the visitors. They administered the site and disenfranchised black citizens. platform was described as "poised, until it was added to the Park System Begun in the simplest of eloquent, and witty." He spoke for in 1962.