AHA Session 63
Friday, January 5, 2024: 8:30 AM-10:00 AM
Powell II (Parc 55, Third)
Chair:
Alison M. Parker, University of Delaware
Panel:
Taylor Brookins, National Park Service
John Fowler, National Park Service
Deanda Johnson, National Park Service
Ajena Rogers, National Park Service
John Fowler, National Park Service
Deanda Johnson, National Park Service
Ajena Rogers, National Park Service
Session Abstract
We are proposing a roundtable discussion titled "Hidden No More: Uncovering Black Women’s History Through National Parks." Our panel of National Park Service (NPS) rangers and park historians will discuss how Black women’s history is being made more visible at National Parks and Historic Sites, as well as how it can be further revealed. As Supervisory Park Ranger at one of the few sites specifically devoted to a Black woman, the Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site, Ajena Cason Rogers is determined to tell her and others’ histories. An interpretative ranger, Rogers has helped highlight Black women’s stories in the national parks through creating living history characters who speak to visitors about their experiences, creating videos to show on site highlighting a particular Black woman or women, or helping to write new interpretative plaques and signs. NPS Civil Rights Historian Déanda Johnson will speak about how the experiences of Black women, especially gendered violence, are not typically a part of the histories told by the NPS at the sites that tell African American history. She will share ideas about how to tell these histories in a deliberate, sensitive, and accurate way, so that we can better understand the suffering and the persistence and courage of Black women. NPS Historian Taylor Brookins will discuss how the National Park Service is using its African American Civil Rights Network (AACRN) program to uncover, interpret, and document Black Women’s role in the Civil Rights Movement at the local, state, regional, and national level. Park Ranger John Fowler oversees Historic Homes, National Capital Parks-East, which includes the Mary McLeod Bethune Council House National Historic Site and the Frederick Douglass house. He will be speaking about how he is working to tell the history of the pivotal role of Black women in American history, including that of clubwoman and activist Mary McLeod Bethune, who held a key position in Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s administration. Fowler is dedicated to sharing Black women’s participation throughout American history, including in the Civil Rights Movement, politics, and historic preservation. Alison Parker, a professor of African American women’s history at the University of Delaware, will serve as chair. Parker has participated in NPS programming regarding the efforts of National Association of Colored Women leaders, including Mary Church Terrell, to preserve Frederick Douglass’s Cedar Hill home in Anacostia. This panel will highlight how the National Parks and Historic Sites can help us understand that Black women have always made history, even when their contributions were marginalized or overlooked. The National Park Service is an important venue for making Black women’s history accessible in ways that educate, entertain, and inspire current and future generations.
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