Thrilling history of Black excellence in our National Parks

By Audrey Peterman As recipient of the National Park Conservation Association’s Centennial Leadership Award 2022 “for outstanding contribution toward ensuring our national parks are ready for their second century of service,” I embrace Black History Month as an opportunity to take you on a tour to some of the glorious places in the National Park System where our forebears helped turn the tide of history. I take it as a point of pride that I have literally walked in the majority of these places, which is why my thirst to share them may never be quenched. I could take you geographically from the southernmost point of the continental United States at the Dry Tortugas National Park, where enslaved Black men helped build the massive Fort Jefferson as part of America’s coastal defense system in the 1830s. We could go all the way north to the highest peak on the North American continent, where George Crenshaw left his footprints on Mount Denali in Denali National Park on July 9, 1964. Because in every facet of American life -from exploration; conquest, defense, economy, resistance, conservation and the pursuit of human rights – I can show you a unit of the National Park...