Segregation prevented African Americans from enjoying the same access and freedom of movement that white visitors enjoyed, and they received discriminatory treatment at the hands of the white park rangers who removed them from the park’s white-only spaces.[5]. However, this did not translate to an equality of experience, or to equal treatment. Evidence of the legacy of segregation in Virginia’s national park sites is hidden in plain sight. With more than 500 miles of trails, hiking is really the main activity in Shenandoah. Arno Cammerer, now Director of the National Park Service, and his staff supported the Virginia Sky-Line Company position, stating: I myself have felt right along that there was not sufficient demand for negroes for this particular type of accommodations to make it pay, but I understand that the Secretary [of the Interior] has insisted on the installation and that this is why they are progressing. [6]For further reading on this topic, see William E. O’Brien, Landscapes of Exclusion: State Parks and Jim Crow in the American South, 2016. It was soon decided that the concessionaire would develop the picnic area, campground, cabins, and restaurant at Lewis Mountain, a departure from precedent at other areas in which the CCC had constructed the picnic and campground facilities to be managed by the National Park Service. But these newly-opened public lands were not fully accessible to everyone–especially if you happened to be black. This article is about the national park in Virginia. [1] In the east, Shenandoah and Great Smoky Mountain National Parks were open. Laboratory for Change. Department of History Virginia Sky-Line Company did not begin to reopen facilities until September 1945. Today, the National Park Service still struggles with a lack of diversity among its visitors, which it is attempting to resolve by reaching out to communities of color. By June, 1938, the Superintendent reported that the picnic area had been graded, fireplaces soon were to be built, and the comfort station was almost complete. Virginia is home to one of 11 National Parks east of the Mississippi River. For the road running through the park, see Skyline Drive. This is not a good condition…. 33, and Rockfish Gap at Rt. Yet true desegregation would take years to fully develop in the National Park Service, an example of “de-facto” segregation is the continued segregation of the concession facilities at Lewis Mountain until 1950. This article first appeared in Resource Management Newsletter, January 1996. In the early 1930s, the National Park Service began planning the park facilities and envisioned separate provisions for blacks and whites. Shenandoah National Park was created when segregation was still legal in the United States. 66 and 340, Thornton Gap at Rt. [3]Erin Krutko Devlin, “Under the Sky All of Us Are Free”: African American Travel, Visitation, and Segregation in Shenandoah National Park, July 2010, 34. The road to de-segregation at Shenandoah was rocky. Overuse in National Parks: Fewer Visitors or More Parks? Things to Do in Shenandoah National Park, Virginia: See Tripadvisor's 5,223 traveler reviews and photos of Shenandoah National Park tourist attractions. This widely circulated memorandum may well have been the final nail in Cammerer's coffin. This left African Americans unsure whether they had access to any accommodations in the National Parks at all. Erin Devlin, assistant professor of history and American studies, was interviewed in an article on OutsideOnline.com entitled “Shenandoah National Park Is Confronting Its History.” She discussed her research into sites in national parks in Virginia that were associated with segregation during the first half of the 20th century. 143 reviews. Segregation in Shenandoah National Park (Student Exhibit) The Appalachian Trail traverses history as well as Geography. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt formally opened Shenandoah National Park on July 3, 1936. Hikes are rated from easy to very strenuous; know that even the easy hikes involve a hike downhill and then, of course, a hike uphill. An initial effort at facilities development by a consortium of businessmen known as Virginia Hosts, Inc. went through several evolutions only to wither. Hiking in Shenandoah National Park. It was discovered by a visitor at around 8 p.m. Some of Shenandoah’s other facilities are integrated. Shenandoah National Park was born. Shenandoah National Park /ˈʃɛnənˌdoʊə/ is an American national park that encompasses part of the Blue Ridge Mountains in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Scotts Bluff National Monument: Layered Rocks, Layered Pasts, Long Exposures: Repeat Photography and Parks as Portals to Learning 2018 Book Project, LGBTQ+ History and Monuments: Historical Perspectives on the Pulse Nightclub and the Matthew Shepard Murder. Cammerer wrote this note to Horace Albright, Director of the National Park Service. From 1933 to 1936 no concession facilities were developed on Skyline Drive since Congressional authority had not been given, although private enterprises were scattered around Shenandoah. [11]Rebecca Stanfield McCrown, Daniel Laven, Robert Manning, and Nora Mitchell, “Engaging New and Diverse Audiences in the National Parks: An Exploratory Study of Current Knowledge and Learning Needs,” The George Wright Society, pp. Virginia Sky-line Company’s concessionaire proposal rapidly was accepted by the government in bids opened on January 15, 1937. The park preserves a remarkable slice of southern Appalachian natural history and beauty with a dazzling array of recreational opportunities. The National Park Service’s minimal attempt to provide black visitors with park facilities contrasted with the clear inequality of segregated facilities in the South’s state parks. Book your reservation online today or call 877-847-1919. Telling the histories of people of color on public lands and acknowledging their all-too-recent mistreatment by the NPS is an important first step. 1950 Desegregation of Shenandoah National Park is complete. In June, Secretary Ickes quietly offered the Directorship to Newton Drury, who accepted, shortly before Cammerer officially resigned as National Park Service Director and became a Regional Director at Richmond. Waterfalls are one of Shenandoah National Park’s signature features. Jim Crow laws forced the agency to create black-only visitor centers, campgrounds, and even picnic areas. On February 11, 1939, National Park Service Associate Director Arthur E. Demary drafted this memorandum (292kb pdf) to Cammerer concerning segregated facilities in Shenandoah, emphasizing that the Secretary of the Interior insisted on having facilities for blacks equal to those for whites. Briefly mentions the Civilian Conservation Corps, racial segregation and intra-family marriages. Campus Mail 1776 General Manager [of Virginia Sky-Line]…has been, or soon will be, given assurance, through Senator Byrd, that the Company may continue its operations this summer without any change in its plans with respect to taking care of Negro visitors. In order to comply with the requirement that public facilities be “separate but equal”, Shenandoah’s first Superintendent, J. Ralph Lassiter, began construction in 1937 on a “proposed colored picnic grounds at Lewis Mountain”. [6] During the New Deal Era, southern states added 150 state parks and excluded African Americans from nearly every one. By mid-summer, however, he was prodded by the Washington office: There is a growing demand for picnic areas for colored people…Two bus loads are going up tomorrow and they have to be fitted into camping places for white people. Superintendent Lassiter defended the evolving Lewis Mountain development, and after a review of facilities at Shenandoah requested by Director Cammerer, with input by Senator Harry Byrd, it was decided by the Secretary that state laws and local segregationist policies would be “generally” followed, but that one large picnic area in Shenandoah would be integrated. Shenandoah National Park IUCN Category II (National Park) All facilities within the park are now open to all people, as Shenandoah becomes one of the first public facilities in Virginia to desegregate. Even though it was federal land, Shenandoah National Park was segregated through a “gentleman’s agreement.” In this agreement, the NPS committed to operate the park according to the state of Virginia’s local laws and customs, including segregation.[3]. SHEN Archives, Park Central Files, Box 30, Public Service—Negroes. by Reed Engle, Cultural Resource Specialist, 1994-2008 How has Shenandoah reserved the history of Lewis Mountain? Three years prior to Shenandoah’s official establishment, park managers were laying the groundwork for an official “separate, but equal” policy.
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