A monument to our African-American heritage

As a leader in the African-American faith community, I celebrate with our neighbors on President Obama’s recent protection of the historic Pullman neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago as a National Monument. This is an appropriate commemoration of a site significant to our history and heritage, and demonstrates the president’s commitment to ensuring all of our children can find their history in our parks and monuments. 

Pullman has deep ties to the nation’s early African-American and Civil Rights history and commemorates the birth of the first African-American labor union. Built by the Pullman Palace Car Company to house workers for its railroad sleeping car factory, poor wages and dire working conditions led to a bloody conflict in 1894 between striking workers and federal troops. Later, civil rights leader Asa Philip Randolph founded the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters — the first African-American-led union. The strides it made against poor working conditions and outright racism benefited workers and contributed to the emergence of the Black middle class. 

{mosads}Knowing of Pullman’s significance, the congressional delegation, local elected officials, business leaders, community groups and conservation organizations had all called for Pullman’s protection. To do so, Obama used his authority under the 100+-year-old Antiquities Act, a law that grants him the authority to “declare by public proclamation historic landmarks, historic and prehistoric structures, and other objects of historic and scientific interest that are situated upon lands owned or controlled by the Government of the United States to be National Monuments.” Since it became law in 1906, the Antiquities Act has been use by 16 presidents, both Republican and Democrat. President Theodore Roosevelt used it first, protecting the Grand Canyon, Muir Woods among other treasures of God’s Creation as well as several historic and cultural sites like Montezuma’s Castle – prehistoric cliff dwellings in Arizona.  

I view the Antiquities Act as an important tool for conserving places like the Grand Canyon, and also places that preserve our history such as Pullman. Our responsibility to care for Creation is coupled with our duty to preserve our cultural heritage.  

Pullman’s designation as a National Monument demonstrates President Obama’s commitment to protect places that tell the stories of all Americans. Previously, the president has used the Antiquities Act to conserve 13 sites, including the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument in Los Angeles, Chimney Rock National Monument in Colorado, and the crossroads of New Mexico’s diverse history in the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument. In particular, he has protected African-American history at the Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers National Monument in Ohio, the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Monument in Maryland, and “Freedom’s Fortress” – Fort Monroe National Monument in Virginia. 

But there is more to do. According to one report, only 24 percent of our nation’s national parks and monuments are dedicated to diverse communities or commemorate minority figures or events. Of the country’s 461 national park units, until now, only 26 were focused on African-Americans, 19 on Latinos, eight on women and only two on Asian-Americans. 

From the local parks that serve as backyard playgrounds to iconic national forests where we host memorable family vacations, our nation’s parks and public lands are beloved embodiments of God’s power and love. I would like to see Obama protect more of these natural and cultural treasures — places that conserve our history for the next generation, and ensure that America’s conservation legacy endures.

Hunter is a bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church and presiding prelate of the Mid-Atlantic 1 Episcopal District.