Visitors

The National Park Service is determined to make the national parks engaging and meaningful for all Americans. The National Park Service recognizes that parks have historically been used by a relatively narrow segment of the population, and that many parks have not offered experiences meaningful to visitors from varied ethnic backgrounds. Although each park is meaningful to different people in different ways, it is critical that all Americans find personal meaning and opportunity in some parks and in their own way.

When visitors from diverse groups see members of their groups as staff at our units, there is a perception that "we are welcomed" because they see people like them, they believe that it is safe, and they can enjoy these sites like any other citizen of America. In addition, those diverse employees can serve as marketers for the parks in their communities, churches, businesses, schools, and other social organizations.

NPS is dedicated to interpretation programs that tell the untold stories that were critical to America's history, but have not been talked about. NPS has held workshops on civil and human rights interpretive planning and a major forum on interpreting slavery. Americans who visit Civil War battlefields should learn not only how the war was fought, but why it was fought.