Photo by Alvin C. Krupnick Co., Library of Congress, LC-USZ62-33780
We commemorate Juneteenth, the day in 1865, when the news of emancipation finally reached enslaved African Americans in Texas, the last state in the Confederacy with institutionalized slavery. It took a full two-and-a-half years after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued for Black Texans to learn of their freedom. Though Black people in the US have long celebrated this day, it has only recently reached the awareness of the broader public, largely because of its designation as a federal holiday last year.
The reason why this history has not been learned or told is because these stories have not been institutionalized in our society, and doing so would require confronting our racist legacy and a disruption of the status quo. Textbooks and television shows are only now starting to bear witness to the legacy of slavery and settler colonialism, but so much of this was about the conquest, pillaging, and tilling of the land beneath us. And our public lands must bear witness as well. This nation’s land was taken from Indigenous people, worked by enslaved Black people, and the stories we tell on this land, from our national parks to our national monuments, should reflect this history.
When we look at our national symbols, monuments, and public lands, we want all people to feel comfortable, safe, and welcome. We also want to ensure that our monuments accurately reflect critical, though sometimes difficult and dark, moments in US history.
To accurately record, acknowledge, learn, and honor our history, our public lands must be representative of the diverse American experience and reflect the contributions of all Americans. And yet, less than a quarter of our nation’s national parks are currently dedicated to acknowledging the histories of BIPOC peoples, movements, and cultures.
Two sites in particular, Black Wall Street and the site of the 1908 Springfield Race Riot, are underrecognized stories in American history that deserve a place in our history books and among our public monuments.
The Greenwood neighborhood outside Tulsa, Oklahoma, popularly referred to as Black Wall Street, was one of the preeminent Black communities in the US in the early 20th century. On May 20, 1921, this thriving community was burned to the ground by a white mob that murdered hundreds, destroyed businesses and residences, and left thousands of people homeless.
This horrific event not only destroyed the wealthiest Black neighborhood of its time, but deprived future generations of Black Oklahomans of wealth. This often-overlooked piece of American history underscores the success of Black communities, hard-won during the Jim Crow era, and the racism, lynchings, violence, and segregation felt in Black communities then and continuing to this day.
The story in Springfield, Illinois was a similar one, where a violent white mob started a riot triggered by a false report that a Black man raped a white woman. Like Tulsa, the site of the 1908 Springfield race riot was decimated, destroying lives and generations of livelihoods. The Illinois National Guard was eventually called in, and this act of brutality served as the catalyst for the creation of the NAACP.
Both sites are emblematic of not only the great successes of Black communities across the US, but also the violent, unjust, and racist attempts to suppress us. What happened in Tulsa and Springfield were not isolated incidents, but rather events catalyzed by a system of oppression that persists to this day.
This Juneteenth, President Biden should choose to honor the Black community by designating both sites national monuments by way of executive order under the Antiquities Act. The Antiquities Act is one of the best safeguards to preserve places with cultural, historical, and ecological significance, and doing so would highlight and acknowledge these moments in our history.
The diversity of our country has always been and continues to be one of our greatest assets. Making our national parks and monuments more reflective of that diversity directly contributes to a more inclusive America. As we look to the future, we must acknowledge and learn from our past, celebrate the contributions of diverse peoples, and ensure the wrongs against these communities never occur again. A national monument designation for these two sites would be one small step forward toward that goal.