Learn more about Modjeska Monteith Simkins, Civil Rights activitst Courtesy of the Modjeska Monteith Simkins Papers, South Caroliniana Library, University of South Carolina

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 American contributions to American history. Join the National Register in paying powerful tribute to the spirit of African Americans.

Camp Nelson, c.1865, Jessamine County, Kentucky National Register photograph

Camp Nelson
Kentucky's largest recruitment and training center for black troops during the Civil War was also a refugee camp for their wives and children.

Fox Lake
A resort community for African Americans developed during the 1930s in Indiana.

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)

 

Slave cabin, Keithfield Plantation, Georgetown County, South Carolina featured in the newly revised TwHP lesson, When Rice Was King. Photo by Sherry Piland

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. TwHP has eleven ready-to-use lesson plans, available for free downloading, that examine different aspects of African American history. Titles include:

• 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
• 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
  

Bethel AME Church, Reno, Nevada - newly listed in the National Register, and highlighted in We Shall Overcome: Historic Places of the Civil Rights Movement Photograph courtesy of Mella Harmon, Nevada State Historic Preservation Office

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 Southeastern Louisiana's African American places to Chicago's Black Metropolis. Be sure to visit the many newly recognized historic sites that were added to our itineraries during the past year.

• Aboard the Underground Railroad
  You probably know about John Brown and Harriet Tubman, but have you heard of Owen Lovejoy and John P. Parker? Learn about these and many other Underground Railroad activists and the historic places they used while resisting slavery. Several Underground Railroad sites have been added to the itinerary recently, including: Reuben Benedict House, Samuel and Sally Wilson House, James and Sophia Clemens Farmstead, Plymouth Church of the Pilgrims, Nathan and Mary Johnson House, Mount Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church and Mout Zion Cemetery, Bruin's Slave Jail and the Barney L. Ford Building.
• We Shall Overcome: Historic Places of the Civil Rights Movement
  This itinerary leads you to 49 fascinating historic places located throughout the United States associated with the modern Civil Rights Movement, including these new sites: Modjeska Monteith Simkins House, New Kent School and George W. Wakins School, Andrew Rankin Memorial Chapel, Frederick Douglass Memorial Hall, and Founders Library, John Philip Sousa Junior High School, Bethel AME Church, Bizzell Library at the University of Oklahoma and the Daisy Bates House.
• Southeastern Louisiana
  Learn more about Louisiana's African-American history by visiting St. John the Baptist Church in the historic African American community of Dorseyville; surviving slave quarters like those at Evergreen Plantation or the Cherie Quarter Cabins--birthplace of author Ernest J. Gaines; Carter Plantation, built in 1820 by free black Thomas Freeman; and Port Hudson, where free blacks and slaves fought for the Union.
• Washington, DC
  Our nation's capital is home to very significant African American historic sites such as DAR Constitution Hall, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site. This itinerary also highlights numerous lesser-known sites such as the Ralph Bunche House, Lincoln Park, Anacostia HD, Mt. Zion Cemetery, Striver's Section HD, Charles Sumner School, Metropolitan AME Church, Greater 14th Street HD, Greater U Street HD, Mary Church Terrell House, Mary McLeod Bethune House, General Oliver Otis Howard House, and Blagden Alley--Naylor Court HD.
  
• Historic Charleston's Religious and Community Buildings
  Charleston, South Carolina, contains a variety of places that reflect African American history including an Old Slave Mart, churches such as Central Baptist, Old Bethel Methodist, and Emanuel AME, and the Avery Institute--the city's first free secondary school for African Americans, now a museum and archives for African American history and culture.
• Detroit, Michigan
  Visit Detroit's Dunbar Hospital, the Ossian Sweet House, and the Second Street Baptist Church to learn more about Detroit's African American history.
• Chicago, Illinois
  Visit Chicago's Overton Hygienic Building, the Chicago Bee Building, or the Wabash Avenue YMCA to learn more about the vibrant African American community known as the Black Metropolis.

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

African American History and Culture: A Remembering
A CRM issue that explores African American heritage in the National Park Service architecture. Note: This magazine is in PDF format and loading time may take a bit longer for some users.

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.

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.

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.

African American History Month 2001 and 2000
For more information about African-American properties listed in the National Register, please visit these past features.

African American Feature Page | Camp Nelson | Fox Lake | NR Home