Remembering Jim Crow Again – Representing African American Experiences of Travel and Leisure at U.S. National Park Sites Critically

Summary

This discussion exams the cultural construction of heritage in terms of leisure, travel, and tourism with respect to race at U.S. National Park sites in the Southeast region. I argue for a more critical analysis of the centrality of race in discussions of stewardship of heritage resources.  Risks and restrictions to freedom of movement and access to public sites of leisure were real for those identified as non-white in America prior to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In a much talked about speech delivered in 1948 by then U.S. presidential candidate Strom Thurmond, he declared theaters, swimming pools, homes, and churches off limits to integration between blacks and whites in the U.S. South. Using the Green Book travel guide series as point of departure, I focus on the underrepresentation of African American experiences of travel and leisure at national park sites historically and presently.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2018   •
• Making American Memory Great Again

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Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 142