World Heritage Initiative Department of History Atlanta, Georgia

The year 2022 has seen significant activity in World Heritage. The International Convention signed by 187 countries around the globe establishing the World Heritage program in 1972 celebrated its 50th Anniversary last month! Overseen by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, the program has inscribed 1,154 natural and cultural properties on the celebrated World Heritage List. The United States has 24 properties inscribed including the latest eight sites associated with the architect Frank Lloyd Wright (which count as one property). A potential 25th property—the Hopewell Indian Ceremonial Earthworks in Ohio—is currently under review by the World Heritage Centre.   Although Russia’s unprovoked war against Ukraine prevented the World Heritage Committee from meeting this past summer, an ad hoc working group made recommendations to the World Heritage Committee on how to handle nominations identified as Sites of Recent Conflict, suggesting they be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. Plans are underway for the World Heritage Committee to convene over the summer of 2023. Nationally, the appointment of Director Chuck Sams III to head the National Park Service, along with Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks Shannon A. Estenoz and Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland finally has in place the permanent leadership necessary for the United States to fully engage World Heritage. All that remains is for the country to resume its participation in the international organization.   This week promises to be significant as the U.S. Congress debates—and with good fortune—adopts the Omnibus Appropriations Bill for Fiscal Year 2023 with the crucial renewed funding budgeted for UNESCO and the World Heritage Fund (with necessary waiver) that both the U.S. House and U.S. Senate Appropriations Committees approved in earlier draft versions. This would allow the United States to resume active participation in international cultural heritage. So from the present point of view, if all goes well, the Year 2023 promises to be bright!

Left: Rosa Parks, bronze, sculpted by Daub and Firmin Studios, LLC, installed 2013 Center: Dr. Mary McLeod Methune, marble sculpted by Nilda M. Comas, installed 2022 Right: Daisy Lee Bates, maquette by sculptor Benjamin Victor, to be installed 2023

Civil Rights Leaders Installed in the National Statuary Hall

Other activities in the U.S. Capitol are also of interest. At the site desecrated by the January 6 insurrectionists in 2021, statues representing the Old South and Confederacy continue to be withdrawn, making way for new statues from the Civil Rights Movement to better represent all Americans.   Authorized in 1864, the National Statuary Hall Collection allowed each state to submit two statues to honor their most distinguished citizens. Over time the collection out grew its original space in the Old Hall of the U.S. House of Representatives and statues are now displayed throughout the building. Congress placed a bust of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in the Capitol in 1986 followed by Sojourner Truth and Helen Keller in 2009. The Congress allowed states to swap out statues in 2000, thereby replacing older important citizens with newer more significant ones. In 2013, the Congress approved legislation authorizing additional statues be placed in the Capitol with Rosa Parks becoming the first African American woman presented as a full-sized statue.

Barbara Johns embraced civil rights activism as a teenager when she led a 1951 student walkout at Moton High School. Her statue, whose sculptor has been selected but not yet announced, will depict the youngest honoree in the National Statuary Hall. This year several states have swapped out statues of former Confederates for representatives of the Civil Rights Movement. The State of Florida removed General Edmund Kirby Smith and installed Black educator and leader Mary McLeod Bethune. In place of attorney U. M. Rose, Arkansas installed Daisy Bates, the head of the Little Rock National Association for the Advancement of Colored People that led the effort to desegregate Central High School. And in probably the most notable example, Virginia—having removed its statue of Robert E. Lee—is replacing him with a statue of Barbara Johns, the leader of the 1951 student walkout at Moton High School in Farmville, an act that helped precipitate the Brown v. Board of Education court case and desegregation decision.

Just as these actions reflect the ongoing racial reckoning the nation has undergone in recent years, so too the potential Serial Nomination of U.S. Civil Rights Movement Sites for World Heritage demonstrates a transformed America to the international community. With luck, all this positive change will continue into 2023. Happy New Year!

This project is funded in part by: The African American Civil Rights program of the Historic Preservation Fund, National Park Service, Department of the Interior. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material do not constitute endorsement or necessarily reflect the views of the Department of the Interior or U.S. Government; and Grants from the African American Fund and the Southern Intervention Fund of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Questions? Comments?  Visit: worldheritage.gsu.edu. Project Director Glenn T. Eskew: gteskew@gsu.edu or 404.413.6354 Project Manager Anne H. Farrisee: afarrisee@gsu.edu or 404.413.6353