Mississippi amongst new additions to African American Civil Rights Community | Existence

WASHINGTON – National parks, historic homes, websites, songs, oral lore, and more can be discovered on the National Park Service’s African American Civil Rights Network, which welcomed 10 new resources this week. The network connects public and private organizations to honor and preserve the people and stories of the civil rights movement and to educate the public about its diverse and complex stories.

“The African American Civil Rights Network is a unique conservation program that brings together both tangible and intangible resources to tell a fuller story of the civil rights movement in America,” said Shawn Benge, associate director of the NPS. “We welcome and encourage potential members to apply to join this growing network of culturally significant resources.”

Eleven resources were added to the network earlier this year. The NPS continually accepts applications from individuals and organizations associated with the African American civil rights movement. Details on the application and review process are available online.

Discover the new network members

Florida

National Monument St. Markusburg

At the height of the modern civil rights movement, St. Augustine, Florida was founded in 1964 by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference selected as the destination city for civil rights activities. Activists were given permission by the NPS to use the Castillo as a meeting place for demonstrations. The site served as a backdrop for several meetings and served as a safe gathering place for activists.

Mississippi

Mississippi Delta National Heritage Area at the Delta Center for Culture and Learning

The Mississippi Delta National Heritage Area (MDNHA) is the land where the blues began, where rock ‘n’ roll originated, and where gospel is a living art. A recently launched web-based Mississippi Delta civil rights heritage archive is now available, illustrating the various ways the MDNHA has expanded its community efforts to work with local and national organizations to “interpret, preserve and commemorate the civil rights heritage in the area. ”

South carolina

Historic Mosquito Beach neighborhood

Between 1920 and 1940, Mosquito Beach developed into a thriving tourist destination. Despite breaking up with Jim Crow, Mosquito Beach became one of six black beaches in Charleston, South Carolina. Black visitors to nearby Folly Beach, then considered “only white”, were harassed even after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed. It wasn’t until the early 1970s that many of Charleston’s beaches began to be desegregated, bringing with it an increase in new local shops and attractions.

Mother Emanuel AME Church

The Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church in Charleston, South Carolina is the oldest AME church in the south and is home to the oldest black congregation south of Baltimore, Maryland. The history of this community reflects the development of religious institutions for African American people in Charleston. Its roots come from a religious group of both enslaved and free African Americans organized in 1791.

Modjeska Simkin’s house

Modjeska Monteith Simkins made a significant impact on public health reform, social reform, and the civil rights movement in South Carolina by using her home as an office, hangout, and shelter for civil rights activists. As the secretary of the South Carolina NAACP, she helped the state move toward racial equality. Simkins helped draft the statement for the school lawsuit calling for the convergence of black and white schools in Clarendon County that laid the foundation for the statement that was later used in the Brown v Board of Education case at the Supreme Court.

Charlie’s place

Charlie and Sarah Fitzgerald opened Charlie’s Place in 1937 and became a bustling pillar of business and black nightlife in the 1960s, providing a safe place for black workers, professionals and locals to enjoy and was included in the 1953 Green Book Airline Edition. In August 1950, Charlie’s Place was attacked by members of the Ku Klux Klan, injuring numerous patrons and Mr. Fitzgerald. Thurgood Marshall’s legal representation in the case resulted in the Klansmen being charged, but they were never prosecuted.

All-star bowling lanes

The tragedy known as the “Orangeburg Massacre” was historically associated with the All-Star Bowling Lanes. Despite the enactment of the Civil Rights Act in 1964, the All Star Bowling Lanes in Orangeburg, South Carolina continued to operate as a separate facility, claiming bowling alleys did not come under the jurisdiction of the law. In February 1968, students from nearby South Carolina State and Claflin University began holding peaceful demonstrations in the alleys and surrounding areas. Students sang peacefully and gathered at the entrance to SC State when nine patrolmen shot at the group of students. A total of 28 men and women were injured. Three students died from gunshot wounds.

McCrory’s Five and Dime

Inspired by the Greensboro Four’s stance on equality, black students from Friendship Junior College held their own sit-in demonstrations at McCrory’s Five and Dime and several other businesses in Rock Hill, South Carolina. The demonstrations began on February 12, 1960 with nine students and lasted almost a year with an estimated 100 students of Friendship participating. More demonstrations and arrests followed across the United States, prompting national politicians to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Virginia

Contraband and Freedman Cemetery

At the height of the civil war, self-emancipated African Americans fled to various cities in search of freedom, education and opportunity, but were constantly faced with the horrors of racism and segregation. The smuggling and Freedman Cemetery in Alexandria, Virginia, is the resting place of more than 1,700 African Americans and is a reminder not only of the harsh reality of American furniture slavery, but of the ongoing crimes against black lives for generations to come. The memorial has routinely served as the venue for gathering, reunions, and protests, one of the most recent being a demonstration by Black Lives Matter in 2020.

Washington, DC

Association of African American Museums

The Association of African American Museums (AAAM) is a non-profit organization that was founded in the late 1970s as the sole representative and voice of the African American museum movement. The origins of the AAAM can be traced back to the Black Museum and the Black Power Movements of the 1960s. His primary focus is on combating the misrepresentation and misrepresentation of African and African American Studies in schools and other public media.

Connect with the African American Civil Rights Network. The ongoing struggle for racial equality is narrated through a collection of powerful historical sources that commemorate, honor, and interpret lesser-known civil rights figures. The AACRN consists of properties, programs and facilities that reflect the reality of the African American civil rights movement, when African Americans and their allies fought for justice and ended segregation and disenfranchisement in the United States

Via the National Park Service

More than 20,000 National Park Service employees care for America’s 423 national parks and work with communities across the country to preserve local history and create recreational opportunities close to home. Find out more at www.nps.gov and on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.