Our Center for Regional Citizenship’s community engagement and outreach efforts around The National Parks: America’s Best Idea are designed to create a larger discussion about a variety of topics and to help people recognize that national parks preserve a wide variety of history and stories representative of our diverse society. With support from a PBS grant, we’ve developed a brochure to draw attention to our region’s rich African American heritage and the significant role African Americans played in the founding of our democracy.

The brochure highlights local landmarks that trace the African American heritage of Hampton Roads. From their arrival in 1619 as indentured servants, to Nat Turner’s 1831 Rebellion, from fighting in the Civil War and later setting up community schools, African Americans have impacted the history and culture of our region and country. Our brochure includes a timeline and a reader-friendly map that encourages exploration of that rich history and culture.

The print brochure is being distributed throughout schools, historic sites throughout Hampton Roads – and we’re making it available to everyone, in downloadable PDF format, at: www.whro.org/nationalparks or click on the image below.

Educational materials (http://www.pbs.org/nationalparks/for-educators) created around the film support formal and informal classroom settings with lesson plans and hands-on learning activities that can be used by a broad range of grades and disciplines. Also, the Untold Stories project was designed to bring to light stories from the national parks focusing on the role of African Americans, Asian Americans, Hispanic Americans and Native Americans in the creation and protection of individual parks and to engage new and traditionally underserved audiences in the educational richness of the national parks.

We invite you to join us on an exploration of the historic, natural and cultural wonders of our national parks and to experience the treasures right here in our own backyard.

For more information on these and other resources, please continue to visit the PBS website: http://www.pbs.org/nationalparks/

WHRO is one of over sixty PBS stations to receive a community engagement grant to work with nearby national parks and other organizations to reach communities that have not historically visited parks. WHRO will produce a color brochure that creates a map to national and state parks in Hampton Roads and highlights the many jewels of early African American history at the sites. African American history and contributions are documented and preserved in our region’s national and state parks, yet they are often overlooked by the traditional visitor. The brochure will serve as a guide for all Americans to better understand how black history is a vital part of the fabric of American history. The brochure should be available by early September and will be downloadable from the WHRO website.

National parks do more than preserve our nation’s natural and cultural heritage; they enrich lives, enhance learning and provide inspiration in an increasingly challenging and complex world.

For more information, please contact Kelly Jackson,
Director of the WHRO Center for Regional Citizenship
757.889.9415 or kelly.jackson@whro.org

The Center for Regional Citizenship extends the impact of public broadcasting with a goal to build civic, social and educational capital in Hampton Roads. For more information on the CRC, please visit the website at http://whro.org/home/cfc.