The National Park Service announced this month the addition of seven new sites to the Reconstruction Era National Historic Network. “This national network connects sites across the country who provide education, interpretation and research related to the period of Reconstruction. The Reconstruction Era (1861-1900) is one of the most fascinating and misunderstood periods in American History and includes stories of freedom, education and self-determination,” according to the National Park Service announcement. Here is the NPS description of the sites:
- The Alabama State Capitol in Montgomery, Alabama is a National Historic Landmark that, in addition to being an active state legislature, interprets the role of Black Alabamians who served in the state legislature during Reconstruction.
- The Association to Preserve the Eatonville Community in Eatonville, Florida conducts public education and interpretive programming on the history of Eatonville. The community was first settled by formerly enslaved people in the 1870s and was then incorporated in the 1880s to be a self-governing all-Black city.
- The Charles Sumner School Museum and Archives, located in Washington, DC, was first established in 1872 as a school for the city’s Black students, and continues as a museum and archive to documenting the history of public education in Washington.
- The Lincolnville Museum and Interpretive Center interprets 500 years of Black history in St. Augustine, Florida. The museum includes a variety of exhibits on Reconstruction ranging from Black soldiers in the Civil War, Black political leaders of northeast Florida, and the violent overthrow of Reconstruction in the region.
- Located near Ridgeland, South Carolina, the Honey Hill Battlefield Park preserves the site of one of the one of the largest Civil War battles in South Carolina. Participants included a substantial number of Black soldiers from the Lowcountry, who in some cases were fighting against Confederates from the region who had enslaved them prior to the war.
- Incorporated in 1875, the Olivewood Cemetery in Houston, Texas, is a historic African American cemetery where more than four thousand Black citizens are buried. Dating to Reconstruction, the cemetery has also been recognized by the United Nations UNESCO as a “Site of Memory” in the Slave Route Project.
- Sumner Hall Post #25 in Chestertown, Maryland, was established by Black veterans and members of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR). Today the site is a museum, educational site, and community center. Sumner Hall, along with the David Hunter GAR Post in Beaufort, South Carolina, are the only historically African American GAR buildings still standing in the United States – both of which are now in the Reconstruction Era National Historic Network.
Note: Picture is of the Lincolnville Museum.
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