Today Michaela and I took a little day trip along Skyline Drive. It’s still early for a change in the foliage, but we decided to go anyway. We ate lunch at the Big Meadows Lodge and then took a little hike. We saw a number of deer, one of which came within 5-feet of Michaela before crossing a road. We also checked out the Visitors Center and there history exhibit. My knowledge of the history of the Shenandoah National Park is minimal so I took advantage of the exhibit. I was struck by one exhibit which outlined segregation in the Park. Even in an isolated place such as the Shenandoah Valley authorities felt it necessary to keep the races separated. On the drive home the absurdity of it all hit me. People travel to this site to experience multiple species co-existing in their natural habitats and our own species fails miserably at it. Additional pics here.
A Nice Day for a Drive
Get a Signed Copy of My Book ($25 Direct From Author)
"In this stunning and well-researched book, Kevin Levin catches the new waves of the study of memory, black soldiers, and the darker underside of the Civil War as well as anyone has... Levin is both superb scholar and public historian, showing us a piece of the real war that does now get into the books, as well as into site interpretation."
David Blight, Author of Race and Reunion
Previous post: Quick Follow-Up To “Perfect Christmas Gift”
Next post: Florida’s Black Confederates
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Interesting. Other than the gift shop I didn’t look around the visitors’ centre at Big Meadows when I was hiking in Shenandoah this summer, so I was unaware of that aspect of its history. T
Did they say when they desegregated the parK?
Philip, — Actually, integration of the park began early in 1939 and was completed by 1950. Much of this had to do with the determination of Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes.