Learn more about Alonzo Herdon, an influential black businessman, in our Atlanta, Georgia Travel Itinerary Courtesy of The Herndon Foundation

The National Register of Historic Places is pleased to promote awareness of and appreciation for the historical accomplishments of African Americans during African American History Month. As part of the celebration, this site showcases historic properties listed in the National Register, National Register publications, and National Park units commemorating the events and people, the designs and achievements that help illustrate African American contributions to American history. Join the National Register in paying powerful tribute to the spirit of African Americans.

Row of houses in Sugar Hill Historic District in New York, NY Photograph by Kathy Howe, Courtesy of New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation

Florida Properties
•American Beach Historic District
•Hurricane of 1928 African American Mass Grave

Entertainment and Commerce
•Eagle Saloon, Karnofsky Tailor
Shop and House, and Iroquois
Theater
•WROX Building

Other Featured Historic Places
•Sugar Hill Historic District
•Barton Heights Cemeteries
•Lorraine Apartments
•Pearl High School

African American Historic Places

African American Historic Places

(ISBN 0-471-14345-6) describes more than 800 properties in 42 States and 2 U.S. Territories listed in the National Register of Historic Places that have played a role in African American history. Banks, cemeteries, clubs, colleges, forts, homes, hospitals, schools, and shops are but a few of the types of properties explored in this volume, which is an invaluable reference guide for researchers, historians, preservationists, and anyone interested in African American culture. Also included are eight insightful essays on the African American experience, from migration to the role of women, from the Harlem Renaissance to the Civil Rights Movement.
(Available from John Wiley & Sons at 1-800-225-5945)

 

The George W. Watkins School (top photo) and the New Kent School (bottom photo) in New Kent County, Virginia is featured in the TwHP lesson, New Kent School and the George W. Watkins School: From Freedom of Choice to Integration

Teaching with Historic Places
This program offers a series of award-winning lesson plans that use places listed in the National Register to enliven the study of history, social studies, and geography. TwHP has many ready-to-use lesson plans, available for free downloading, that examine different aspects of African American history. Titles include:

• ~NEW~
  New Kent School and the George W. Watkins School: From Freedom of Choice to Integration
• Chicago's Black Metropolis: Understanding History Through a Historic Place
• From Canterbury to Little Rock:
  The Struggle for Educational Equality for African Americans
• Glen Echo Park: Center for Education and Recreation
• Iron Hill School: An African-American One-Room School
• The Liberty Bell: From Obscurity to Icon
• Memories of Montpelier: Home of James and Dolley Madison
• The Old Courthouse in St. Louis: Yesterday and Today
• The Siege of Port Hudson: "Forty Days and Nights in the Wilderness of Death"
• Two American Entrepreneurs: Madam C.J. Walker and J.C. Penney
• The Vieux Carré: A Creole Neighborhood in New Orleans
• When Rice Was King
  

National Register Travel Itineraries
Travel to historic places that convey the courageous and inspiring stories of African Americans from their perseverance along the Underground Railroad to freedoms gained during their struggle for civil rights, from Atlanta's African American places to Chicago's Black Metropolis. Be sure to visit the many newly recognized historic sites that were added to our itineraries during the past year.

• Aboard the Underground Railroad
  You probably know about John Brown and Harriet Tubman, but have you heard of Owen Lovejoy and John P. Parker? Learn about these and many other Underground Railroad activists and the historic places they used while resisting slavery. Several Underground Railroad sites have been added to the itinerary recently, including: Reuben Benedict House, Samuel and Sally Wilson House, James and Sophia Clemens Farmstead, Plymouth Church of the Pilgrims, Nathan and Mary Johnson House, Mount Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church and Mout Zion Cemetery, Bruin's Slave Jail and the Barney L. Ford Building.
• We Shall Overcome: Historic Places of the Civil Rights Movement
  This itinerary leads you to 49 fascinating historic places located throughout the United States associated with the modern Civil Rights Movement, including these new sites: Modjeska Monteith Simkins House, New Kent School and George W. Wakins School, Andrew Rankin Memorial Chapel, Frederick Douglass Memorial Hall, and Founders Library, John Philip Sousa Junior High School, Bethel AME Church, Bizzell Library at the University of Oklahoma and the Daisy Bates House.
  
  

  Stone Hall--highlighted in our Atlanta, Georgia Travel Itinerary-- administration building of one of the earliest colleges for African Americans Courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Historic American Buildings Survey or Historic American Engineering Record, Reproduction Number HABS, GA,61-ATLA,10A-12

  ~NEW~Atlanta, Georgia
  The African American experience in Atlanta is one of progress and perseverance, and can been discovered at places such as the Martin Luther King, Jr., National Historic Site, Sweet Auburn Historic District, Atlanta University Center District and Stone Hall, Herndon Home, Washington Park Historic District, Booker T. Washington High School, and Oakland Cemetery.
  
  
• ~NEW~Lexington, Kentucky
  Find out more about African Americans in Lexington at the First African Baptist Church and South Hill Historic District
  
  
• Southeastern Louisiana
  Learn more about Louisiana's African American history by visiting St. John the Baptist Church in the historic African American community of Dorseyville; surviving slave quarters like those at Evergreen Plantation or the Cherie Quarter Cabins--birthplace of author Ernest J. Gaines; Carter Plantation, built in 1820 by free black Thomas Freeman; and Port Hudson, where free blacks and slaves fought for the Union.
• Washington, DC
  Our nation's capital is home to very significant African American historic sites such as DAR Constitution Hall, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site. This itinerary also highlights numerous lesser-known sites such as the Ralph Bunche House, Lincoln Park, Anacostia HD, Mt. Zion Cemetery, Striver's Section HD, Charles Sumner School, Metropolitan AME Church, Greater 14th Street HD, Greater U Street HD, Mary Church Terrell House, Mary McLeod Bethune House, General Oliver Otis Howard House, and Blagden Alley--Naylor Court HD.
  
• Historic Charleston's Religious and Community Buildings
  Charleston, South Carolina, contains a variety of places that reflect African American history including an Old Slave Mart, churches such as Central Baptist, Old Bethel Methodist, and Emanuel AME, and the Avery Institute--the city's first free secondary school for African Americans, now a museum and archives for African American history and culture.
• Detroit, Michigan
  Visit Detroit's Dunbar Hospital, the Ossian Sweet House, and the Second Street Baptist Church to learn more about Detroit's African American history.
• Chicago, Illinois
  Visit Chicago's Overton Hygienic Building, the Chicago Bee Building, or the Wabash Avenue YMCA to learn more about the vibrant African American community known as the Black Metropolis.

Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, where Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered his "I Have A Dream" speech National Park Service photograph

Featured Parks

•Dayton Aviation Heritage National
Historical Park

•Lincoln Memorial

• Booker T. Washington National Monument
• Boston African American National Historic Site
• Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site
• Cane River Creole National Historical Park
• Colonial National Historical Park: Jamestown
• Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park: Paul Laurence Dunbar House
• Fort Davis National Historic Site
• Fort Scott National Historic Site
• Frederick Douglass National Historic Site
• George Washington Carver National Monument
• Harpers Ferry National Historical Park
• Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve: Chalmette
• Lincoln Memorial
• Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site
• Martin Luther King, Jr., National Historic Site
• Mary McLeod Bethune Council House National Historic Site
• New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park
• Nicodemus National Historic Site
• Perry's Victory and International Peace Memorial
• Petersburg National Battlefield
• Port Chicago Naval Magazine National Memorial
• Richmond National Battlefield Park
• Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail
• Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve: Kingsley Plantation
• Tuskegee Institute National Historic Site
• Virgin Islands National Park

Cultural Resources Diversity Program
A highlight of the National Park Service's on-going efforts to reflect the diversity of American culture.

Our Shared History: Celebrating African American History & Culture
An ongoing effort to provide a comprehensive list of African American related resources located within the National Park Service web pages.

African American History and Culture: A Remembering
A CRM issue that explores aspects of African American heritage. (PDF format)
Search the Issue Archives then, search Issue Title for "African American History and Culture".

American Visionaries: Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass has been called the father of the civil rights movement. He rose through determination, brilliance, and eloquence to shape the American nation. He was an abolitionist, human rights and women's rights activist, orator, author, journalist, publisher, and social reformer. This exhibit features items owned by Frederick Douglass and highlights his achievements. The items are in the museum and archival collections at the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site at Cedar Hill, Southeast Washington, DC.

American Visionaries: Legends of Tuskegee
Who are the Legends of Tuskegee and what do they have in common? Booker T. Washington, George Washington Carver and the Tuskegee Airmen all came to Tuskegee and created their own legends. Tuskegee is more than a town located in Macon County, Alabama. It was a bold experiment and a site of major African American achievements for over 100 years. This three-part web exhibit highlights the achievements of Washington, Carver and the Tuskegee Airmen.

Martin Luther King Jr., National Historic Site Historic Resource Study
Provides an historical overview of the historic park and identifies the park's cultural resources within its historic context.

National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Program
The National Park Service is implementing a national Underground Railroad initiative to coordinate preservation and education efforts nationwide and integrate local historical places, museums, and interpretive programs associated with the Underground Railroad into a mosaic of community, regional, and national stories.

Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record (HABS/HAER)
The HABS/HAER program documents important architectural, engineering and industrial sites throughout the United States and its territories. Their collections, including numerous African American sites, are archived at the Library of Congress and available online. You can view these by clicking on the link above and entering the search term "African American."

National Museum of African American History and Culture
This planned museum will give voice to the centrality of the African American experience, and will make it possible for all people to understand the depth, complexity, and promise of the American experience.

African American History Month 2002, 2001 and 2000
For more information about African American properties listed in the National Register, please visit these past features.

African American Feature Page | Florida Properties | Entertainment and Commerce
Other Featured Historic Places | Featured Parks | NR Home