The Old Courthouse in St. Louis Missouri featured in the TwHP lesson: The Old Courthouse in St. Louis: Yesterday and Today. (Photo by Beth Boland.)

The National Register of Historic Places is pleased to promote awareness of and appreciation for the historical accomplishments of African Americans during African American History Month. As part of the celebration, this site showcases historic properties listed in the National Register, National Register publications, and National Park units commemorating the events and people, the designs and achievements that help illustrate African Americans' contributions to American history. Join the National Register in paying powerful tribute to the spirit of African Americans.

Paul Laurence Dunbar "Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906)." Circa 1890. The African-American Experience in Ohio, 1850-1920, Ohio Historical Society, Library of Congress.

National Historic Landmarks

National Register Listings

African American Historic Places

African American Historic Places

(ISBN 0-471-14345-6) describes more than 800 properties in 42 States and 2 U.S. Territories listed in the National Register of Historic Places that have played a role in African American history. Banks, cemeteries, clubs, colleges, forts, homes, hospitals, schools, and shops are but a few of the types of properties explored in this volume, which is an invaluable reference guide for researchers, historians, preservationists, and anyone interested in African American culture. Also included are eight insightful essays on the African American experience, from migration to the role of women, from the Harlem Renaissance to the Civil Rights Movement. (Available from John Wiley & Sons at 1-800-225-5945)

Teaching with Historic Places
This program offers a series of award-winning lesson plans that use places listed in the National Register to enliven the study of history, social studies, and geography. The many ready-to-use lesson plans, available for free downloading, that examine different aspects of African American history include:

• An American Success Story: The Pope House of Raleigh
• Brown v. Board: Five Communities that Changed America
• Chicago's Black Metropolis: Understanding History Through a Historic Place
• From Canterbury to Little Rock:
  The Struggle for Educational Equality for African Americans
• Glen Echo Park: Center for Education and Recreation
• Iron Hill School: An African-American One-Room School
• The Liberty Bell: From Obscurity to Icon
• Memories of Montpelier: Home of James and Dolley Madison
• New Kent School and the George W. Watkins School: From Freedom of Choice to Integration
• The Old Courthouse in St. Louis: Yesterday and Today
• The Siege of Port Hudson: "Forty Days and Nights in the Wilderness of Death"
• Two American Entrepreneurs: Madam C.J. Walker and J.C. Penney
• The Vieux Carré: A Creole Neighborhood in New Orleans
• When Rice Was King
  

The Raleigh, North Carolina, travel itinerary includes Estey Hall, the first building in the United States constructed for the higher education of black women. Photo by Michael Zirkle Photography, courtesy of Raleigh Historic Districts Commission.

National Register Travel Itineraries
Travel to historic places that convey the courageous and inspiring stories of African Americans from their perseverance along the Underground Railroad to freedoms gained during their struggle for civil rights, from Atlanta's Sweet Auburn to Chicago's Black Metropolis. Be sure to visit the many newly recognized historic places that were added to our itineraries during the past year.

Natchitoches Historic District and the Africa House at Melrose Plantation in our Cane River National Heritage Area travel itinerary. Africa House photo courtesy of of National Historic Landmark collection Natchitoches Historic District photo by Candice Pauley and John Lees, courtesy of Cane River National Heritage Area,

Featured Park: New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park
A story rich with innovation, experimentation, controversy and emotion, the park provides an ideal setting to share the cultural history of the people and places that helped shape the development and progression of jazz in New Orleans.

Other African American History Parks

Presidential Proclamation: National African American Heritage Month 2008

African American History Month 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001 and 2000
For more information about African American historic places listed in the National Register, please visit these past features.

Celebrate African American Heritage in America's National Parks

National Historic Landmark Program's African American History Month
National Historic Landmarks are nationally significant historic places designated by the Secretary of the Interior because they possess exceptional value or quality in illustrating or interpreting the heritage of the United States. Their African American History Month feature highlights the Carter G. Woodson House.

HABS/HAER/HALS/CRGIS African American History Month
Historic American Buildings Survey, Historic American Engineering Record, Historic American Landscapes Survey, Cultural Resources Geographic Information Systems, Cultural Resources Geographic Information Systems African American History feature highlights various African American properties documented in their programs.

Our Shared History: Celebrating African American History & Culture
An ongoing effort to provide a comprehensive list of African American related resources located within the National Park Service web pages.

Cultural Resources Diversity Program
A highlight of the National Park Service's on-going efforts to reflect the diversity of American culture.

African Reflections on the American Landscape: Identifying and Interpreting Africanisms
Examines African cultural heritage found in the built environment and its interpretation within the NPS cultural resources programs.

National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Program
The National Park Service is implementing a national Underground Railroad initiative to coordinate preservation and education efforts nationwide and integrate local historical places, museums, and interpretive programs associated with the Underground Railroad into a mosaic of community, regional, and national stories.

Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record/Historic American Landscapes Survey (HABS/HAER/HALS)
This program documents important architectural, engineering and industrial sites, and landscapes throughout the United States and its territories. Their collections, including numerous African American sites, are archived at the Library of Congress and available online. You can view these by clicking on the link above and entering the search term "African American."

African American History and Culture: A Remembering
A CRM issue that explores aspects of African American heritage. (PDF format)

Africans and African Americans on Jamestown Island 1619-1803
This on-line book (available as a large pdf) tells the story of Africans of the settlement of Jamestown, Virginia, from their point of arrival in the colony and ends with the establishment of a free black community.

American Visionaries: Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass has been called the father of the civil rights movement. He rose through determination, brilliance, and eloquence to shape the American nation. He was an abolitionist, human rights and women's rights activist, orator, author, journalist, publisher, and social reformer. This exhibit features items owned by Frederick Douglass and highlights his achievements. The items are in the museum and archival collections at the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site at Cedar Hill, Southeast Washington, DC.

American Visionaries: Legends of Tuskegee
Who are the Legends of Tuskegee and what do they have in common? Booker T. Washington, George Washington Carver and the Tuskegee Airmen all came to Tuskegee and created their own legends. Tuskegee is more than a town located in Macon County, Alabama. It was a bold experiment and a site of major African American achievements for over 100 years. This three-part web exhibit highlights the achievements of Washington, Carver and the Tuskegee Airmen.

Martin Luther King Jr., National Historic Site Historic Resource Study
Provides an historical overview of the historic park and identifies the park's cultural resources within its historic context.

A Tribute to Martin Luther King, Jr.
Commemorate Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday and the historic places associated with the struggle for civil rights that captured the attention of the United States and the world.

National Museum of African American History and Culture
This planned museum will give voice to the centrality of the African American experience, and will make it possible for all people to understand the depth, complexity, and promise of the American experience.

Arna Wendell Bontemps House | Langston Hughes House| Paul Laurence Dunbar House
Featured Park | African American Feature Page Home | NR Home

National Park Service | U.S. Department of the Interior | USA.gov | Privacy & Disclaimer | FOIA
Comments or Questions