Forum Replies Created
-
-
In 1956, the National Parks Service rolled out “Mission 66,” a ten year program that promised large expansion of the parks nationwide to facilitate exponential tourism growth by the NPS 50th Anniversary in 1966. Despite all the claims of land preservation, Mission 66 initiatives came at the expense of large swaths of land in order to create all the road systems, housing, attractions, etc. deemed necessary to “upgrade” the parks. Prior to this, the parks were widely neglected due to lack of funding – the end of WWII and its increase in infrastructure budgeting is what allowed Mission 66 to come to fruition. As we know from our reading and discussions, this land was taken from Native Americans throughout the history of the United States, the idea that it could be better managed and preserved turning out to be, unsurprisingly, not turning out to be true.
The first photo shows the parking lot overflowing with visitors to Yosemite, and I thought it the contrast of the automobiles and the idealized landscape in the background was quite striking.
Partridge, R., photographer. Pave it and paint it green / Rondal Partridge. California Half Dome Yosemite National Park, . [196-, Printed Later] [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2011645056/.
The second photo is of the construction of the Shark Valley observation tower in the Everglades National Park. Everglades was one of the pilot parks of Mission 66, as it was still very under-developed in the late 1950s. You can see alligators swimming in the water in this photo, which I think is pretty powerful in showing the impending human impact on the ecosystem. Photo by NPS, found here.
-
Although I lived much of my childhood in Pennsylvania, my mother is originally from Newport News, Virginia, and I lived there for 8 years myself; finishing out my senior year of high school and while stationed out of Norfolk when I was in the Navy.
So, this week, I wanted to find a story from my former home. While searching, I stumbled across a headline in The Virginian-Pilot that was startling, and not something I’d ever considered before; the disrepair and lack of oversight for historic African-American graveyards throughout Virginia. Half of my life being spent in Pennsylvania and the other in Virginia, I’ve had my fair share of visits to Gettysburg and Yorktown battlefields, which are frequented by school children and tourists, and do not have to worry about their maintenance/upkeep as formally acknowledged historical sites.
However, these African-American gravesites are plagued by flooding, overgrowth, debris, etc. that fall to groups of volunteers to clear when they are able. Many African-Americans and funeral homes in Virginia were forced to create their own cemeteries when Jim Crow laws forbade them from burying their friends and loved ones in public cemeteries with whites. As the years passed and families moved away, many of these cemeteries were left to be buried under overgrown brush, their headstones crumbling in the elements.
This article (from May of last year) announces a bill that passed, allotting $5 per gravestone to some particular African-American gravesites in Richmond (the state’s capitol). This may not seem like much, but it’s the amount that has been allotted to those of Confederate soldiers for years; Confederate soldiers, sailors, markers, memorials, and monuments have long received state support and maintenance.
Photo (from the above linked article) of Annette Cameron, who is visiting her parent’s gravesite at Lincoln Memorial Cemetery in Portsmouth on May 2, 2018 (Photographer: Stephen M. Katz). Lincoln was not impacted by the aforementioned bill as of the writing of this article, but the hope is that it will eventually be added to the growing list.
-
By now, I’m sure many of us have seen the story and disturbing images circulating following March for Life (an anti-abortion movement) in DC which coincided with The Indigenous Peoples March. High school age children (many from a Catholic school that was identified by shirts, hoodies, hats the children were wearing) began to gather around a group of remaining participants from the Indigenous Peoples March outside of the Lincoln Memorial. In videos from the incident, the children (who appear to be majority white) can be seen surrounding a small group of natives and mocking them; dancing and chanting nonsensically and chanting “build the wall.” I think one of the most disconcerting images from this incident, to me, is one where a white child stands mere inches from a Native American man (identified as activist, veteran, and elder Nathan Phillips) – staring at him and smirking, another child leering at Phillips in the background. The intentioned disrespect seems palpable; the disrespect of an elder man’s personal space (something that I would say is often expounded upon to children as something to explicitly BE respected) – I think it’s a fair assumption that this child would not likely get in the face of an older white man. Many of the children were also wearing some sort of “MAGA” apparel as they surrounded Indigenous peoples, spouting off Trump-isms that ignore the historical truth of the acquisition of the territories we now know as the United States.
Image is a screen grab from YouTube, posted by Jay Connor in his article, here.
