Aug 16, 2024
Following the Blackwell School National Historic Site in Texas becoming the nation’s 430th national park in July, the Biden-Harris administration is going a step further towards a public land system that reflects all Americans. On August 16, 2024, President Biden established the 1908 Springfield Race Riot National Monument after several years of pressure from community leaders urging him to conserve the historic site under the authority of the Antiquities Act. This new monument would for the first time acknowledge this dark chapter in U.S. history on public lands, honor the legacy of civic rights leader Ida B. Wells and the formation of the NAACP, and allow the nation to learn from this history. The move has been supported by a bipartisan group of members of Congress and drew accolades from a broad coalition of groups urging the president to make the move, ranging from Black Lives Matter, to the National Religious Partnership for the Environment, to Sierra Club, to the Lincoln Presidential Foundation among others.
The designation permanently memorializes the site of the August 14, 1908, attack by a white mob who lynched Black residents of Springfield, Illinois, while setting fire to their homes and businesses. The aggression was so heinous, it would become the impetus for the founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the leading national voice for equity and justice for Black people and other people of color for more than a century.
“We must remember, resolve and restore. The 1908 Springfield Race Riot should live in our hearts and minds forever as a constant reminder of man’s capacity for cruelty and inhumanity against his fellow man,” said Austin Randolph, president of the Springfield NAACP branch. “Make no mistake, there is a whole lot more work to do. Within the struggle in our hearts and minds, lies the desire for equity, peace and healing. This national monument will forever stand for freedom and justice. It will be our solemn reminder of where we came from as it propels us towards where we are destined to be: equal.”
Underscoring that systemic injustice and racial violence remain a scourge and that we must tell the stories of those whose lives are lost and forever changed as a result, the decision happens just five weeks after the shooting of Sonya Massey in her own home in Springfield, after she called police fearing an intruder in her home. A white officer on the scene shot her in the face, killing the 36 year old unarmed Black woman. The America the Beautiful for All Coalition (ATB4A) stands with communities impacted by racial violence and solemnly celebrates the Biden-Harris Administration’s designation that preserves the story of the 1908 Springfield Race Riot. Commemorating hard truths and ensuring they are not lost to history is a critical ingredient to ensuring we are not destined to repeat history. In Springfield, IL, the community deserves to have the stories they have long fought to preserve protected in perpetuity. Telling more of the nation’s story through America’s public lands is a legacy the Biden-Harris Administration should continue.
A legacy of protecting historic cultural sites
The move comes just weeks after the administration named the site of the Blackwell School in Marfa, Texas, as its newest national park. The Blackwell School was built in 1909 and segregated Mexican American children from their white peers, and violently punished students for speaking Spanish. In addition to the main adobe structure, the protected site included an on-site annex built in 1927.
“President Biden ran for president promising to conserve more lands and cultural sites while fighting for environmental justice for communities of color, and he is delivering,” said Angel Peña, executive director of the Nuestra Tierra Conservation Project. “No administration has done more in modern history to protect public lands, waters and cultural sites.”
The Biden-Harris administration’s land and water conservation initiatives have drawn praise from the coalition, which is urging the protection of 30 percent of U.S. land and waters by 2030 that prioritizes communities on the frontlines of the climate and nature loss crisis. These efforts are vital to addressing the climate crisis, protecting the health of communities, while promoting wildlife and biological diversity. Securing a future with abundant access to nature and healthy public spaces that are welcoming to all communities starts with ensuring our public lands represent all of us.
Since the launch of the administration’s America the Beautiful initiative, the U.S. has experienced one of the most rapid accelerations of conservation progress in the nation’s history, with more than 41 million acres of land and water conserved in three years. This important surge in protections has been stimulated by local frontline communities who address public health challenges by preserving places of cultural, ecological, and historic significance for the benefit of everyone.
According to Colorado College’s 2024 “State of the Rockies” poll, voters in every state polled show overwhelming support for the nation’s most ambitious conservation goal in history. “Eight-in-ten (80 percent) support conserving 30 percent of land and inland waters in America, and 30 percent of its ocean areas by 2030, with overwhelming support across party lines.” Sixty-eight percent of Republicans, 83 percent of Independents, and 91 percent of Democrats support the 30 by 30 conservation proposal, Colorado College reports.
Prioritizing Indigenous and Tribal cultural sites
Since U.S. Secretary of Interior Deb Haaland–a Pueblo of Laguna member and the first Native American cabinet member in U.S. history–has taken office, the Department of Interior Secretary and President Biden delivered on two key national monument decisions among others that honored decades of community-led efforts to preserve significant cultural sites. Last year, President Biden and Secretary Haaland created the Avi Kwa Ame National Monument in Nevada and Castner Range National Monument in Texas.
The Castner Range monument is under the control of the U.S. Army, who were asked by the White House to work with tribes and the El Paso community to ensure public access. The Army used the desert at Castner Range as a training site between 1926 and 1966, and the site continues to be strewn with untriggered munitions.The first all-Black regiments of U.S. Army units, known as Buffalo Soldiers, were installed on this Department of Defense-administered landscape.
The space was also formerly home to multiple Native American tribes including the Apache and Pueblo peoples, the Comanche Nation, the Hopi Tribe, and the Kiowa Indian Tribe of Oklahoma.
President Biden and Secretary Haaland’s establishment of Avi Kwa Ame National Monument protected 500,000 acres of land in Nevada considered sacred to Native tribes. Known as the “center of creation” by Yuman-speaking Tribes, and sacred to other Indigenous peoples, Avi Kwa Ame means “Spirit Mountain” in the Mojave language. These critical ecological hotspots form a connective tissue for migrating wildlife where ancestral petroglyphs will remain in perpetuity.
Both monuments were designated using the 1906 Antiquities Act which allows the President to protect landmarks, structures and federal lands for cultural and ecological conservation. The administration’s actions will prevent private development on the lands and ensure that the federal government works with Native Americans to protect these places for generations.
The truths at the intersection of land and history
In moving forward with this monument designation, the Biden-Harris administration furthers efforts made by communities, Tribes and governments at all levels to have America’s public lands reflect a more complete American story, where people of differing races, cultures and religions see themselves reflected in their public lands.
The coalition believes monuments such as this can teach hard and painful lessons, but also create a more honest and complete interpretation of our public lands and waters.
In instances like Springfield, they are sobering reminders of systemic injustice that reverberates in communities today. There are also many chapters of triumph, brilliance, and achievement that have not been told, especially critical stories from communities of color left to the margins. These stories must be preserved and told through our public lands.
A report from the National Religious Partnership for the Environment found that only about 180 of the 2,600 historical landmarks in the country are considered African American historical landmarks. And of the 129 national monuments designated by U.S. presidents since 1906, 12 represent the history and stories of Black people.
The America the Beautiful for All Coalition, comprised of more than 250 member organizations from across the nation and a variety of missions, calls on the Biden Administration to cement their legacy of preserving special places and lifting up the history of communities of color and Indigenous people in our public lands. There is more work to be done and the coalition stands ready to support local communities and the Biden administration to preserve these stories through our public lands.
The America the Beautiful for All Coalition is the largest and most representative national coalition consisting of more than 250 organizations working collectively to advance the national goal to protect 30% of US land, water and ocean by 2030 (30×30) and apply a Justice40 metric to that goal. These goals comprise national plans to thwart destruction of natural climate solutions; stem the loss of biodiversity; increase equitable access to nature’s benefits. Working across a range of missions, identities, communities and cultures, this coalition is leveraging the national 30×30 goal to write a new chapter of the American conservation movement where its leaders are more representative of the communities on the frontlines of these crises and where collective action leverages a range of lived and learned experience to drive community-based solutions into DC policy-making. www.americathebeautifulforall.org
