Dear Friend of the National Parks,

Happy Summertime! NPCA has been busy, and we hope you've been staying cool. We're excited to share what we’ve been up to in the southeast. 

Park It Forward in the Great Smokies
Addressing national park visitation has become a priority for NPCA and the National Park System. There are 14.1 million people coming to Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GRSM) annually. This requires more resources to deal with wear-and-tear on park trails, picnic areas, restrooms and historic cabins. In 2023, Great Smokies implemented Park It Forward, which charges a modest fee for parking, generating critical revenue to protect the Smokies. This opportunity provides each person who visits and uses the park a way to contribute towards its upkeep and is a sustainable year-round source of funding for the park to meet the needs of today and tomorrow.  
 
"The Park It Forward parking tag program has brought in critically needed funding to protect and enhance the visitor experience, not just for tomorrow, but for generations to come," said GRSM Superintendent Cash 
 
Superintendent Cash went on to say, "Sales of parking tags have exceeded our projections thanks to our visitors and their direct investment in the protection of the park through their purchase. With parking tag revenue, we have already hired seven additional rangers who, just since March 1, have picked up hundreds of pounds of trash and aided over 55,000 visitors by providing directions, advice on destinations, and information about how to recreate safely. We are excited to continue to invest the funds to improve the visitor experience." 

We wish to thank NPCA members and our Southeast Regional Council members for supporting the Park It Forward program in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, with public comments, letters to the editor and of course, by purchasing a Park It Forward tag.

New Faces at NPCA  
Please extend a warm welcome to our new Southeast Regional Council members: Norm Richie, Hugh Mainzer, and Mark Manatov, in addition to Illif McMahan and Mary English who are returning to serve a new term. We’re also thrilled to have Blake Borwig (below, left) joining Diquan Edmonds (below, right) to represent the Southeast Region on NPCA's Next Generation Advisory Council.  



We are also excited to welcome new staff: Southern Appalachian Landscape Project Director Olivia Porter (below, left), who is working to build new relationships with community partners in the Southern Appalachians towards the goal of connected conservation; Zana Pouncey (below, center), the Southeast Outreach and Engagement Manager, based in Atlanta, GA who works across the region to support programs and campaigns in national parks, and Gessika Guerra (below, right), our first Veteran's Outreach intern who is working to expand programs for veterans in Tennessee and North Carolina. 



A Big Win for the Alabama Black Belt 
On January 5, 2023, the Alabama Black Belt was designated as a National Heritage Area. This exciting recognition of the natural and cultural resources in the Alabama Black Belt comes after years of work from Congresswoman Sewell, Senator Shelby, NPCA and our partners.  



Progress is already underway towards sharing stories and preserving sites across the newly appointed National Heritage Area. Phillip Howard (Marine and Air Force Reserves Veteran and current member of NPCA’s Veteran’s Council) lives and works in the Alabama Black Belt as the project manager for the Conservation Fund’s Civil Rights People and Places Initiative. He works within communities to identify and protect important civil rights sites in the Black Belt. If you visit, be sure to check out our blog for a list of must-see spots. 

NPCA Victory: National Monument for Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley  
On Tuesday, July 25th, what would have been Emmett’s 82nd birthday, President Biden established a national monument to memorialize Emmett Till and his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley. The monument will include three sites, two of which will be in the Southeast: Graball Landing in Glendora, MS and the Tallahatchie County Second District Courthouse in Sumner, MS.  



Thank you to all who joined us in calling on leaders in Washington to protect the legacy of Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley with a park in their honor. Learn more about the monument here.   

Engaging Veterans in the Smokies, by Gessika Guerra  
We are expanding upon NPCA's veterans work to bring a program to the southeast. The overarching goal is to host events on public lands for veterans to attend and learn about NPCA and the National Park Service. Events will have a broad overview on topics such as the Clean Air Act, Endangered Species Act and Safe Passage -- a revolutionary idea to create safe wildlife underpasses under major interstates to reduce mortality. There will be a hike on this topic in the fall -- learn more here.   

Historic Schools and Their Legacy  
Between 1917 and 1932, Julius Rosenwald and Booker T. Washington’s vision and partnership helped establish nearly 5,000 schools that served Black students across the Southeast. These Rosenwald Schools were paramount to investing in education for Black youth, and by 1928 nearly one in three Black students and teachers were served by the Rosenwald Schools. Today less than a fourth of these sites remain. Several civil rights activists, advocates, historians and preservationists are planning a national park site in Chicago to tell the story of these schools and working to restore the still standing schools in the South.  



Founded in 1868 by Dr. Mansfield Tyler, the Lowndesboro School was a pillar of education for Black students in the Alabama Black Belt during Reconstruction. Now identified by the Alabama Historical Commission as the only known remaining example of a 19th century rural schoolhouse for Black children, its history is threatened to be erased. We are working to support community leaders in Alabama like Josephine Bolling McCall to protect the legacy of the school.   



Staff in the Southeast region and Regional Council member Norm Richie visited the Arabia Mountain National Heritage Area for a guided tour of the cultural sites in Lithonia, GA. Among the historical relics is the Bruce Street School the first Black public school in Dekalb County, GA and potentially the entire state. The group heard testimony from Arlene Harper, one of the first students to attend the school. In a moment of serendipity, Norm recognized Ms. Harper as his middle school cafeteria chef from her time employed with Dekalb County Schools. A restoration effort is underway to revitalize the remaining structure for a community multi-use space.     



While the fight to preserve more historical schools is still underway, NPCA and the Blackwell School Alliance recently celebrated a victory in the Blackwell School becoming the first national park site dedicated to telling modern Latino and Mexican American History. Until the late 1900s, students of Latin and Mexican decent across the southwest were forced to attend segregated schools with fewer resources. The designation of the school as a national historic site is an example of what’s possible for preserving important historically significant schools in our nation.

No Gates, No Golf, by Joshua Jenkins 
As the heart of the Reconstruction Era National Historic Network and the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor, Beaufort County, South Carolina is one of the most culturally rich locales in this nation. So when these special places and their stories became threatened, NPCA stepped up to support local advocates in Beaufort.  



In late 2022, a developer sought an exemption to a 24-year-old Cultural Protection Overlay (CPO) to build a golf course and gated community on Beaufort County’s St. Helena Island. The CPO prohibits the construction of golf courses and resort style communities, due to their well-documented adverse impacts on rural economies and Gullah culture. The proposed development site sits within the acquisitional boundaries of the Reconstruction Era National Historical Park and is known as the site of Laura Towne’s home, the co-founder of the Reconstruction Era Penn School, one of the first schools for freedmen in the South.  

While advocacy efforts were successful in pushing the Beaufort County Council to strengthen the Overlay and deny the developer a CPO exemption, the developer still owns the land in question and could develop a residential community in this special place. NPCA will continue to work alongside local advocates to protect this special place and its stories in perpetuity.  

Grand Opening: Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument, by Joshua Jenkins  
A packed slate of events to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Medgar Evers’ assassination and to celebrate his life and the work as well as that of his surviving wife, Myrlie Evers-Williams, was crowned by the grand opening of the Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument in Jackson, Mississippi on June 8, 2023. Several high-profile figures including the first Black National Park Service (NPS) Director, Robert Stanton, attended the grand opening ceremony which included speeches by Myrlie Evers-Williams and music played by a band of NPS Rangers.  



The Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument, authorized as a national monument in 2019 via the Dingell Act, is a part of Jackson, Mississippi's Elraine Subdivision, which was the first planned middle-class neighborhood for Black people in Mississippi post World War II and now serves as the core of the Medgar Evers National Historic District, which has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 2013.  

The Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument is a part of the recent influx of national park units, such as the Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument and the Reconstruction Era National Historical Park, established to commemorate and interpret the Black American struggle for civil and human rights in the United States. 

Annual Meeting Week
We’re proud of the impact our partners and advocates helped us make this year on Capitol Hill during NPCA’s annual meeting week this spring. NPCA had over 90 volunteers advocating alongside staff and collectively visiting over 100 congressional offices. The Southeast fielded teams from Alabama, Georgia and North Carolina. 

As you can see, we are working across the Southeast region to protect our parks, and couldn't do it without members and supporters like you. To contact us, please use [email protected]. We are so grateful for all your support, for helping us defend these incredibly important places in our nation's natural, cultural and historic sites. 

Sincerely,

Emily Jones
Southeast Regional Director

Images: Bear jam in Great Smoky Mountains © George Brock Scott; Blake Borwig and Diquan Edmonds © NPCA; Olivia Porter, Zana Pouncy, Gessika Guerra © NPCA; Moundville Archaeological Park © UWA; Tallahatchie County Missippi Courthouse, site of the Emmett Till murder Trial, public domain image; A Rosenwald school in AL shows signs of neglect © David Bulit | Abandoned Atlas Foundation; Regional Council member Norm Richie reconnects with Arlene Harper, his middle school cafeteria chef © Zana Pouncy | NPCA; The Blackwell School in Marfa, TX © Sarah M. Vasquez; Reconstruction Era National Historic Park © Joshua Jenkins | NPCA; The Evers Home National Monument © Joshua Jenkins | NPCA; NPCA staff and volunteers meet with Congressman Wiley Nickel © NPCA