World Heritage Initiative Department of History Atlanta, Georgia

Brown v. Board of Education Heritage Sites Become the Newest National Historical Park NPS Adds Two Additional Properties and Five Affiliated Sites

What’s in a name? For National Park Service units, a National Historical Park is a larger, more complex version of a National Historic Site. The National Park Service created a new National Historical Park when President Joe Biden signed into law on May 12, 2022, the Brown v. Board of Education National Historical Park Expansion and Redesignation Act. Click here to read the Act.

The Act creates a multi-state, multi-property National Historical Park dedicated to telling a more complete story of the landmark court case that struck down racial segregation by overturning the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson decision. Ordering the desegregation of public schools, the Brown decision supported other cases such as Browder v. Gayle and Boynton v. Virginia that resulted in the desegregation of public transportation and accommodations. Brown v. Board of Education consolidated multiple court cases against school segregation. The new National Historical Park includes properties from each of the communities involved in the lawsuit.   Two schools in Summerton, South Carolina will be acquired by the National Park Service and become visitation sites: Summerton High School, a formerly whites-only institution that now houses administrative offices for the Clarendon County School District 1, and Scott’s Branch High School, a formerly African American institution that now houses a community resource center owned by the school district.

Summerton High School was the all-white school that refused to admit black students.

Scott's Branch High School was built as an "equalization" school to serve African American students in Summerton.

Five other schools from the lawsuit will become affiliated sites with the National Historical Park: Robert Russa Moton High School in Farmville, Virginia; Howard High School in Wilmington, Delaware; Claymont High School in Claymont, Delaware; Hockessin Colored School #107 in Hockessin, Delaware; and John Philip Sousa Junior High School in Washington, D.C. These sites will continue to operate independently and NPS will provide technical and possibly financial assistance, along with a management plan for each affiliated site.   After a multi-year advocacy campaign led by Executive Director Brent Leggs of the National Trust for Historic Preservation African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund, who worked closely with the offices of House Majority Whip, U. S. Representative James E. Clyburn of South Carolina and U.S. Senator Christopher Coons of Delaware, the president signed the act into law. Click here to learn more about the campaign and see all of the sites.

View What They Did Here Inspired the World To showcase the potential U. S. Civil Rights Movement Sites Serial Nomination for World Heritage, the advertising firm Luckie & Company produced the seven-minute film, What They Did Here Inspired the World. It premiered last April as a featured broadcast during the "Celebration of World Heritage" hosted by the U.S. National Committee of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (US/ICOMOS). Later that month it received a second viewing as part of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement Sites Symposium at Georgia State University. You can view it on YouTube or on the GSU World Heritage Initiative website's home page.

HistoricFunding.com Offers a New Search Tool for Finding Funds There's a new source for finding funding, a database of over 7,500 funding sources (grants, loans, tax incentives, rebate programs, CLG funds, and easement programs), as well as work-training and educational resources (apprenticeships, fellowships and internships, scholarships, and residency programs). Launched in May 2022, joining HistoricFunding.com as a member costs $25 per month or $85 per year. Click here for more details.

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