Interior Secretary Sally Jewell and National Park Service Director Jonathan B. Jarvis were to visit Alabama on Thursday to hear public comments on proposals for additions to the National Park System in Birmingham and Anniston.
On Mother’s Day 1961, a Freedom Riders bus in Anniston was attacked and burned, and Freedom Riders were beaten. The incident shocked the nation and inspired more people to join the fight against the injustices of Jim Crow laws in the American South, an Interior release said. The sites of these incidents have been proposed for inclusion in the National Park System to broaden its storytelling of the long march for civil rights for African Americans.
Secretary Jewell and Director Jarvis plan to tour these two sites, which include the former Greyhound bus station on Gurnee Avenue and the site of the firebombing of the Freedom Rider bus. They will also hear from members of the Freedom Riders Park Committee. Both sites are proposed for protection as part of Congressman Mike Rogers’s legislation H.R. 5882 to establish the Freedom Riders National Historical Park.
After the tour of proposed sites in Anniston, Secretary Jewell and Director Jarvis will join Anniston Mayor Vaughn Stewart in a community meeting at 12:30 p.m. CDT at the Bridge - First United Methodist Church to hear the community’s vision for preservation of these important sites.
Later in the day, the two will join Congresswoman Terri Sewell and Birmingham Mayor William Bell in a community meeting at the 16th Street Baptist Church to hear the vision of residents there for preservation of important civil rights sites in the city. Prior to the public meeting, Jewell and Jarvis will join Congresswoman Sewell and Birmingham Mayor William Bell to visit the A.G. Gaston Motel and Kelly Ingram Park – proposed sites for protection in Congresswoman Sewell’s legislation H.E. 4817 to establish the Birmingham Civil Rights National Historical Park.
In 1963, Birmingham was the epicenter of the American Civil Rights Movement. Activists like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, Rev. Ralph Abernathy, Sr. and countless unnamed heroes gathered there to demand equality for all people and to integrate all aspects of society.
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I think we need to call a halt to the continued expansion of the National Park System until we can fully fund and staff the parks that are now in the system. Lets take a break for now and not add any more areas to the National Park system.
As one who experienced the fear and ugliness of a civil rights march (in Memphis in 1961 - and it wasn't even one of the worst ones), I'm that many of our stories of that awful time are in danger of being lost.
Perhaps we do need a moritorium -- but could we add one caveat?
How about "unless they are endangered by development or some other degradation."
Don't worry, Harry. Bernie Sanders showed us how to solve the problem. Just say gimme the parks for free! From now on, it's all going to be okay, Harry. The millennials are paying for it, after all. Seriously, do you expect sanity, let alone accountability, on a sinking ship of state?
Rhetoric from the ol' stodgy status quo, aside.
I think this is an important inclusion into the NPS and should be added. A museum shop, as well as private donations from a non-profit could more than likely keep an important place like this going year in and year out.
There are other ways to preserve and commemorate these sites. We cannot continue to expand the number of our parks until we can take care of those sites we now have. We need to stop these additions no matter how worthy. At the very least we can wait a year or two until the new congress and administration can make their feelings known about the national park system. If congress will vote additional funds for these new units then we can proceed.
How ironic that the U.S. government is considering ways to commemorate Alabama civil rights campaigns of the past while at the same time violating treaty and civil rights in North Dakota along the Dakota Access pipeline.