National Parks Traveler

Black Studies Could Lead To New Historic Landmarks, Transparency About Segregation

By Lori Sonken

Two studies — one spotlighting segregation at national parks in Virginia from 1916-1965, and the other showcasing where African Americans recreated from the late 19th through the early 21st century — are setting the stage for national historic landmark designations, listings on the National Register of Historic Places,  and opportunities for national parks to be more candid about their past.

Segregation in Virginia’s National Parks, 1916-1965 examines the development of National Park Service segregation policies and their implementation at six national parks in Virginia. Written by Dr. Erin Devlin, an associate professor in the Department of History and American Studies at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia, the study is based on historical records from multiple sources, including the National Archives, NPS, Library of Congress, and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored Persons.

The African American Outdoor Recreation National Historic Landmark Theme Study illustrates how Black Americans, in spite of enormous challenges, frequented and fought to preserve access to hundreds of parks, beaches, campgrounds, country clubs, golf courses, resorts, amusement parks, youth camps and outdoor programs nationwide. Co-authored by Dr. Andrew W. Kahrl, professor, and Malcolm Cammeron, doctoral student, both in the Corcoran Department of History at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia, their study also leans heavily on archived materials.  

Both studies were commissioned by the Park Service, in cooperation with the Organization of American Historians, and completed in 2022.

Devlin explored the policies at Blue Ridge Parkway, Colonial National Historical Park, Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park, George Washington Birthplace National Monument, Prince William Forest Park, and Shenandoah National Park, all in Virginia. Kahrl and Cammeron focused on recreation venues nationwide, but no national parks.

The UVA researchers found several sites, including American Beach on Amelia Island in Florida and Idlewild Lake Resort Community in Michigan, have “high potential” for national historic landmark status, a designation the Secretary of the Interior confers on historic properties depicting U.S. heritage. The Park Service is pursuing national historic landmark status at both sites, said Dr. Deandra M. Johnson, civil rights historian with the agency.

Opened in 1935 on a barrier island about 40 miles north of Jacksonville, Florida, American Beach attracted clientele seeking “recreation and relaxation without humiliation” and flourished for decades as an oceanside paradise, mostly for ordinary, working-class Americans.

“The Amelia Island resort community of American Beach is a rare example of a segregated planned ocean beach resort established by Black Americans,” Kahrl’s and Cammeron’s study found.

Despite encroachment pressures from nearby corporate resorts, American Beach, surrounded by condos and beachfront mansions, largely retains its physical integrity today thanks to the efforts of MaVynee Oshun Betsch, known as “The Beach Lady.” She campaigned against beach development and for the preservation of Nana Dune, the tallest dune on Florida’s Atlantic coast, now owned by the Park Service.

Unlike Amelia Island, the Idlewild Resort Company in Michigan was founded in 1912 by white businesspeople responding to systemic racism, discrimination, and segregation at white resorts.  Idlewild was eventually recognized “as the country’s preeminent African American resort“ for professionals seeking beautiful scenery, as well as recreational activities, including swimming, boating, sun-bathing, picnicking, horseback riding, fishing, hiking and opportunities to socialize and see nationally recognized performers. Ultimately, the resort became a destination for the working class as well. The site’s integrity, including cottages, undeveloped lots, and the lake, remains intact today.

“As the report documents, we didn’t stay home. African Americans — at least those of us with means — have always found places that were welcoming. Often places that were owned and operated by other Black people. And it was in those places that we went on vacation, camped, hiked, swam, danced, and sang. That pattern of recreation formed a very rich, multi-generational tradition, one that many Black people have no interest in abandoning to seek new adventures in national parks,” said Alan Spears, senior director of cultural resources at the National Parks Conservation Association, in an email.  

Indeed, only 6 percent of visitors to national parks in 2018 and 5 percent of the Park Service's workforce self-identified as Black or African American, according to the agency’s Comprehensive Survey of the American Public released in 2019.

By 2022, Blacks represented just 7.3 percent of the Park Service's workforce/Best Places To Work In Federal Government

“One of the challenges of the mainstream (white) preservation movement has been to assume incorrectly that people who are not connected to national parks are carrying a huge deficit," said Spears. “In fact, Black folks who have developed different traditions for recreational engagement are in some ways fully empowered,” and get along without visiting national parks. “That doesn’t mean that the Park Service or organizations such as NPCA should terminate our efforts to diversify the National Park System and its constituency,” he said.

Johnson hopes the Kahrl/Cammeron study will be used to increase the number of historic designations for properties — both national historic landmarks and properties listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

“Currently, less than 10 percent of sites on the National Register reflect diverse histories and this includes women, people of color, and LGBQT,” she said, in an email.

A sign directed blacks to segregated picnic grounds at Lewis Mountain, Shenandoah National Park/NPS archives

Devlin’s study shows how political leaders, even Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes who was president of the Chicago chapter of the  NAACP before his Washington, D.C. career, adopted a “gradualist policy” allowing segregationist policies at parks in Virginia to continue by building separate comfort stations (restrooms), eating and camping facilities, such as the Lewis Mountain Campground at Shenandoah National Park, for Blacks that were inferior to those used by whites or delaying construction altogether. Building duplicate facilities for white and Black visitors proved costly for the parks as well as concessionaires.

Her research revealed the "degree to which segregation was embedded in the NPS structure” supported by Park Service Director Arno Cammerer, as well as park superintendents, planners, landscape architects, and rangers. Park officials justified their actions by saying they were complying with local laws and customs.

Praised for his public stance allowing African American contralto Marian Anderson to perform at the Lincoln Memorial despite the objection of the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1939, Ickes was not as outspoken when it came to integrating Southern parks. He opted to test whether integration could work by constructing the Pinnacles picnic ground within Shenandoah National Park for people of all colors, but park staff supported by Superintendent James R. Lassiter thwarted Ickes’ efforts by failing to inform black visitors about its availability and directing them instead to a segregated space within the park.

“Black travelers constantly complained and pointed out the discrimination they experienced,” including in letters they sent to Ickes, said Devlin

Oftentimes Black Americans could not stay in gateway communities even if they wanted to visit national parks. Although segregation was formally prohibited in 1945 when the Park Service adopted a nondiscrimination policy, inequitable service continued and was not just a  southern concern.

“There were segregation policies and practices across the U.S.,” said Johnson. For example, park rangers at Yellowstone National Park filled the park’s schedule with fake reservations so they could refuse to issue permits to black campers, according to the African Americans and the Great Outdoors story map produced by the Park Service.

Information in Devlin’s study will likely be incorporated in cultural landscape reports, interpretation at the parks, and new items on the National Register of Historic Places, said Dr. Amanda Casper, a Park Service staff historian. There also are plans to continue the study from the perspective of African American recreationists and activists in Virginia.

Another national study is planned to examine employment at national parks from 1872-1965 when employees such as Louis King, an early historian and African American, worked at Gettysburg National Military Park,  and the role that programs, such as the Civil Conservation Corps, played in supporting park infrastructure, said Johnson.

Additional Traveler content on segregation in the National Park System:

How The National Park Service Grappled With Segregation During The 20th Century

National Parks Traveler Episode 26: Segregation In The Parks, And Winter In Everglades

Exhibit On Segregation Opens At Fredericksburg And Spotsylvania NMP

The "Green Book" And The National Parks

Exploring The Parks: Brown V. Board Of Education National Historic Site

Blackwell School Site In Texas Designated National Historic Site

Guidebook To African American History in The National Parks

Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site and the Struggle to Save Sweet Auburn

A Mammoth Family Story

Fort Larned's Dark Chapter

The Future Of Confederate Monuments

Mississippi Civil Rights Sites Special Resource Study

Gloryland Brings Yosemite National Park Ranger Shelton Johnson Full Circle