President Obama moved Thursday to add two monuments to the National Park System, setting aside sites that tell some of the dark history of World War II internment camps and of the country's Civil Rights movement.

In deciding to use the Antiquities Act to designate Honouliuli National Monument in Hawaii, the president gave the National Park System a site that recounts stories from a Japanese internment camp that in 1943 opened in a gulch in Kunia on Oahu and designed to hold some 300 internees along with up to 4,000 prisoners of war.

“This historic site will memorialize the strength and bravery of the many Japanese-Americans who faced discrimination and serve as a reminder to ourselves and future generations that we cannot repeat the mistakes of the past," said U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz in a prepared statement.

Ron Sundergill, the Pacific Region senior director for the National Parks Conservation Association, said the designation provides the Park Service with an opportunity to help "millions of Americans and international visitors understand our country’s history – both our brightest moments and those like Honouliuli Gulch, with a troubled past for its role as a World War II internment camp."

“NPCA has long-supported efforts to share this important piece of our American story within the National Park Service," he added in a statement. "Last summer, in response to the Park Service’s study of the site, thousands of NPCA supporters joined us in voicing support for preserving Honouliuli under National Park Service management. We are proud to see our support for this national park idea become reality.”

In Chicago, where the president announced the new monuments Thursday, he planned to designate Pullman National Monument around a state historic district that protects the birthplace of the Pullman sleeping car that once was a hallmark of rail travel. The site is where George Pullman brought to reality his belief that long-distance rail travel didn't need to be uncomfortable. The facilities that rose up to build his Pullman sleeper cars today showcase 19th and 20th Century industrial society. Just as important was the site's role in the labor movement as well as in the country's first planned company town.

Pullman, founded in the 1880s as a fully planned community for Pullman's employees, was annexed to Chicago in 1889. In 1925, A. Philip Randolph led the creation of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the nation’s first African-American labor union. The 1960s nearly saw the destruction of the historic district—which includes old factory buildings, residences, a hotel, and a clock tower, among other structures—but the community organized against the effort and won city, state, and national landmark status.

“The story of Pullman—of both its past and its present is a story we want the world to hear. We want them to know of Pullman both as the home of the first industrial planned community, of the first African-American labor union, and also of a community banded together for decades against all odds to maintain and thrive,” said 9th Ward Alderman Anthony Beale in a release. 

The new national monument already has nearly $8 million in support thanks to gifts received by the National Park Foundation, the official charity of America’s national parks and nonprofit partner to the National Park Service.

The gifts will help jumpstart critical projects at the new monument, including the establishment of a visitor center, educational and experiential exhibits, and programming in the Administrative Clock Tower Building designed to engage schoolchildren, the community, and visitors about the importance of Pullman to America’s collective history. A generous lead gift was provided by National Park Foundation director Bryan Traubert of the Pritzker Traubert Foundation. Major support also came from National Park Foundation director and Chicagoan Brien O’Brien and Mary Hasten; Union Pacific Foundation; National Park Foundation Director Ellen Alberding and Kelly Welsh; the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation and David Hiller Charitable Fund.

“This funding is a testament to the strong support from the Chicago community to tell the story of Pullman through the national parks,” said Interior Secretary Sally Jewell in prepared comments. “Public-private partnerships help our national parks achieve the margin of excellence, and I commend the philanthropists for their generosity that will help Pullman get off to a strong start.”

“This will be a monument, not to buildings but to Pullman’s role in building the American Dream, and I want to thank everyone who has stepped up to make sure it has the resources it deserves,” said Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. “This new national monument is another step forward in Pullman’s comeback story. From now on, Pullman belongs not just to Chicago but to all of America and I am proud of everyone who made this day possible.”

National Park Service Director Jon Jarvis said the $8 million in donations "are helping us establish the first national park in Chicago and tell the important American stories that have unfolded in the Pullman neighborhood and related to the Pullman Company. With the support they have pledged, we can move ahead with our vision of a park that shares important civil rights, industrial development and labor relations stories with visitors from around the world."

The designations were condemned by U.S. Rep. Rob Bishop, a Utah Republican who chairs the House Natural Resources Committee.

“President Obama has sidelined the American public and bulldozed transparency by proclaiming three new national monuments through executive fiat. The Obama Administration claims these designations have public support, but we know that is a complete stretch of the truth," he said in a release.