Audio
Kym Elder at Glen Echo
Transcript
It was my church that said, “Did you know the history of that park that you’re out there managing?”
And I was like, “Heard a little bit about it. I know it had some issues with segregation out here.”
“No, that’s the same park as African Americans we couldn’t visit. Now you’re the site manager out there.” The next thing I know, it just blows up. And The Washingtonian Magazine does an article on me. And I talk with my parents, because my parents were out there during those riots in Easter of ’66 when the park was shut down because African American students had decided to convene on the park and shut the park down if they weren't going to be allowed to go inside. So that was a part of the history maybe I’d sort of missed somewhere along the way. And my mother and my father claimed they’d talked to me about it, but I didn’t recall that.
So I got out there and was able to bring in--we did some research and we found some of those same students from Howard University who did the boycott in the park. We did an anniversary of when the park closed down because they refused to desegregate. As a result, we told that history and made some great friends out there. The state senator of Maryland, Gwendolyn Britt was one of those students. She was a student at Howard University. So she was able to find us money to do even more. That was just incredible.
Description
When she learned about the history of segregation as a site she managed, Kym Elder responded by researching, strengthening partnerships, and ensuring that this part of the site's history was told.
Credit
NPS Park History Program
Date Created
02/22/2021
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