Monuments to America’s Past

How presidents have used the Antiquities Act to protect and shape history

For over a century, U.S. presidents have used the Antiquities Act to protect America’s treasures. The act gives presidents the ability to preserve natural landscapes and historic structures for the education and enjoyment of the public—as well as future generations—through the creation of national monuments. Many monuments are later redesignated by Congress as national historical parks, national historic sites, and national parks.

Presidents have used the Antiquities Act over 150 times since it was passed by Congress in 1906. From protecting the Grand Canyon in Arizona—where countless rock layers record geologic time—to designating the Freedom Riders National Monument in Alabama—where a mob attacked civil rights activists who demanded an end to racial segregation—these places tell the story of America.

Protecting Manmade and Natural Wonders

The Antiquities Act was passed in response to rampant looting of antiquities from ancestral Native American structures and burial grounds in the Southwest, hence its name. But President Teddy Roosevelt, who signed the act into law, also recognized that large landscapes needed protection given the development pressures facing the southwest, like dams and mines.

Roosevelt used the act four times in 1906, the year of its passage, to create monuments containing substantial archaeological resources and natural wonders. He used it again in 1907 to create Chaco Canyon National Monument (now a national historical park), protecting the stunning greathouses of the ancient Puebloans.

In 1908, Roosevelt used the act to protect the Grand Canyon as a national monument (now a national park), setting a precedent for the creation of landscape-scale monuments using the Antiquities Act. Presidents in the mid-to-late 20th century built on this legacy, designating Denali National Monument and Grand Teton National Monument, iconic areas that are inarguably worthy of protection and have since been redesignated by Congress as national parks.

During the 20th century, the Antiquities Act was also used to designate sites with historical significance, such as the Statue of Liberty National Monument, designated by President Calvin Coolidge in 1924, and Thomas Edison National Historic Park, designated by President Dwight Eisenhower in 1956. This broad use of the Antiquities Act opened the door to another shift in the 21st century, when presidents began to use the act to recognize sites with special cultural significance. Most recently, President Biden used the Antiquities Act on October 12, 2022 to create Camp Hale-Continental Divide National Monument  to honor veterans who trained at Camp Hale for World War II.  

Chaco Canyon National Historical Park

Chaco Canyon National Historical Park, located in northwestern New Mexico, contains the remains of one of the largest and most architecturally advanced pre-Columbian societies in North America. Chaco Canyon was built by the Ancestral Puebloans, whose descendants live on today as the Pueblo Indian peoples of New Mexico, the Hopi Indians of Arizona, and the Navajo Indians of the Southwest.

Grand Canyon National Park

Grand Canyon National Park, located in northwestern Arizona on the ancestral homeland of 11 Native American Tribes, contains the Grand Canyon, a mile-deep gorge of the Colorado River and one of the most spectacular examples of erosion anywhere in the world. The park spans over a million acres, contains almost 300 miles of the Colorado River, and receives millions of visitors every year.

Denali National Park and Preserve

Denali National Park and Preserve, located in interior Alaska, is six million acres of wild land, bisected by one ribbon of road. Travelers along it see the relatively low-elevation taiga forest give way to high alpine tundra and snowy mountains, culminating in North America's tallest peak, the 20,310-foot Denali. Wild animals large and small roam unfenced lands, living as they have for ages, undisturbed by modern development.

Statue of Liberty National Monument

“The Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World,” located on a small island in New York harbor, was a gift of friendship from the people of France to the United States and is recognized as a universal symbol of freedom and democracy. The idea of a monument presented by the French people to the United States was first proposed by Édouard René de Laboulaye, president of the French Anti-Slavery Society and a prominent and important political thinker of his time.

Grand Teton National Park

Grand Teton National Park, located in northwestern Wyoming, contains the major peaks of the 40-mile-long Teton Range. The Tetons rise thousands of feet above a landscape containing extraordinary wildlife, pristine lakes, and alpine terrain. The Snake River winds through the national park, which encompasses over 300,000 acres.

Thomas Edison National Historical Park

Thomas Edison National Historical Park, located in eastern New Jersey, contains Edison’s home, the Glenmont Estate, and laboratory, where the motion picture camera, vastly improved phonographs, sound recordings, silent and sound movies, and the nickel-iron alkaline electric storage battery were invented. The laboratory complex includes a three-story building, which held a research library, machine shops for building models, space for experiments and various research projects, and Edison's office. Across from the main building were separate labs for chemistry, physics, and metallurgy.

Chaco Canyon National Historical Park

Chaco Canyon National Historical Park, located in northwestern New Mexico, contains the remains of  one of the largest and most architecturally advanced  pre-Columbian societies in North America. Chaco Canyon was built by the Ancestral Puebloans, whose descendants  live on today  as the Pueblo Indian peoples of New Mexico, the Hopi Indians of Arizona, and the Navajo Indians of the Southwest.

 In 1902, a man named Edgar Lee Hewett mapped the Chacoan sites.  Inspired by the need to protect Chaco Canyon,  Hewett helped draft the federal Antiquities Act of 1906 , the law that gives U.S. presidents the power to designate national monuments. In 1907,  President Teddy Roosevelt proclaimed Chaco Canyon National Monument , protecting the remains of the Chacoan society in perpetuity.  In 1980, the national monument was  expanded to include an additional 13,000 acres and designated  Chaco Culture National Historical Park.

Grand Canyon National Park

Grand Canyon National Park, located in northwestern Arizona on the ancestral homeland of  11 Native American Tribes , contains the Grand Canyon, a mile-deep gorge of the Colorado River and one of the most spectacular examples of erosion anywhere in the world. The park spans  over a million acres , contains  almost 300 miles  of the Colorado River, and receives  millions of visitors every year. 

Upon visiting the site in 1903 for the first time,  President Teddy Roosevelt exclaimed , “The Grand Canyon fills me with awe. It is beyond comparison—beyond description; absolutely unparalleled through-out the wide world.” 

Roosevelt created the Grand Canyon National Monument  in 1908 . The monument was redesignated as a national park  in 1919 . The creation of the park was an early success of the modern conservation movement and helped thwart proposals to dam the Colorado River within its boundaries, which would have flooded the canyon.

Denali National Park and Preserve

Denali National Park and Preserve, located in interior Alaska,  is six million acres of wild land , bisected by one ribbon of road. Travelers along it see the relatively low-elevation taiga forest give way to high alpine tundra and snowy mountains, culminating in North America's tallest peak,  the 20,310-foot Denali . Wild animals large and small roam unfenced lands, living as they have for ages, undisturbed by modern development.

Originally protected by Congress  as Mount McKinley National Park in 1917 , the park’s boundaries have spread outward to include Denali National Monument,  established by President Jimmy Carter in 1978 . Today the park  attracts over 400,000 visitors  annually. 

Statue of Liberty National Monument

“The Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World,” located on a small island in New York harbor,  was a gift of friendship  from the people of France to the United States and is recognized as a universal symbol of freedom and democracy. The idea of a monument presented by the French people to the United States  was first proposed by Édouard René de Laboulaye , president of the French Anti-Slavery Society and a prominent and important political thinker of his time.

The Statue of Liberty  was dedicated in 1886  and designated as a national monument  by President Calvin Coolidge in 1924 . During World War I, the U.S. government  used photos of the Statue of Liberty  in recruitment materials, solidifying its importance as a national symbol of freedom and American military might. Today,  millions of people visit  the statue on Liberty Island.

Grand Teton National Park

Grand Teton National Park, located in northwestern Wyoming, contains the major peaks of the  40-mile-long Teton Range . The Tetons rise thousands of feet above a landscape containing extraordinary wildlife, pristine lakes, and alpine terrain. The Snake River winds through the national park, which encompasses  over 300,000 acres .

Grand Teton National Park took decades to establish. Congress  created the original park in 1929  to protect the Teton Range and several lakes at the foot of the mountains.  In 1943 , President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared additional land in the valley as Jackson Hole National Monument. John D. Rockefeller  had previously purchased land  in the valley with the intention of protecting it.  In 1950 , Congress combined the original park, the national monument, and the Rockefeller lands to establish present-day Grand Teton National Park.

Thomas Edison National Historical Park

Thomas Edison National Historical Park, located in eastern New Jersey, contains Edison’s home, the Glenmont Estate, and laboratory, where the motion picture camera, vastly improved phonographs, sound recordings, silent and sound movies, and the nickel-iron alkaline electric storage battery  were invented . The laboratory complex  includes a three-story building , which held a research library, machine shops for building models, space for experiments and various research projects, and Edison's office. Across from the main building  were separate labs  for chemistry, physics, and metallurgy.

The  park’s museum contains  over 300,000 items,  including chemicals and equipment  used by Edison and his employees, and approximately five million documents related to his work and life as a private citizen. The laboratory was designated as Edison Laboratory National Monument  in 1956 by President Dwight Eisenhower . In 2009, it was renamed Thomas Edison National Historical Park  by Congress .

Telling the Story of America

In 2006, President George W. Bush used the act to establish African Burial Ground National Monument, where over 400 free and enslaved Africans were buried in New York City. As an archaeological site, African Burial Ground clearly fit the definition for use of the Antiquities Act, but it also established a precedent for using the act to protect places that tell the history of oppressed peoples in the United States. The cultural importance of recognizing African Burial Ground was stressed heavily in the designation announcement by Interior Secretary Gale Norton, who said “By creating this monument, we recognize that, as a nation, we were once blind and separated by the shame of slavery.’

President Barack Obama used the Antiquities Act to great effect, protecting more cultural sites in addition to natural landscapes. The administration chose sites that exemplify the complete and honest history of America, including discrimination against oppressed identities and their subsequent fight for equal rights. As a critical part of the process, the Obama administration listened closely to local communities and stakeholders before making designations and established an important process for focusing on designations with strong local community support.

“From the treasured landscapes of northern New Mexico and Washington, to the historic sites in Delaware, to the sites that show our nation’s path from Civil War to civil rights, these monuments help tell the rich and complex story of our nation’s history and natural beauty,” said Obama Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.

African Burial Ground National Monument

In 1991, excavation of a piece of land in lower Manhattan revealed the remains of 421 freed and enslaved Africans who were buried with over 500 artifacts. It is considered one of the most important archaeological discoveries of the 20th century, and it was instrumental in understanding the history of Africans in New York City during the 17th-18th centuries. During that period, Africans were prohibited from being buried in church cemeteries in New York, and so the African community established their own separate place to bury and mourn their dead.

César E. Chávez National Monument

The first cultural monument designated by President Obama, César E. Chávez National Monument honors Latino American history by showcasing the home and workplace of César Chávez, who led the farm workers movement in the 1970s. The result of this movement was the passage of California's Agricultural Labor Relations Act of 1975, the first law in the U.S. that allowed farm workers to unionize.

Honouliuli National Historic Site

Located on Oahu in Hawaii, Honouliuli was the site of one of many prisons used for wrongful incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II. Like other Japanese prisons, most of the prisoners were American citizens unjustly suspected of disloyalty following the attacks on Pearl Harbor. None of the nearly 2,000 people of Japanese descent from Hawaii who were held there were found guilty of any crimes against the United States. 

Belmont-Paul Women’s Equality National Monument

In Washington D.C., this historic building is the place where suffragette Alice Paul and the National Woman's Party fought for women’s rights for more than 90 years. President Obama designated it as a national monument by way of the Antiquities Act on Equal Pay Day in 2016, the day dedicated to bringing awareness to the wage gap between men and women.

Stonewall National Monument

The Stonewall Inn was the site of a milestone in the fight for LGBTQ civil rights and provided momentum for the movement that eventually led to the legalization of gay marriage. On June 28, 1969, an uprising began during a routine police raid on the “private” gay bar. The fight at the bar morphed into a multi-day protest and sparked a surge of activism for LGBTQ rights. The Stonewall Inn still operates as a bar today, and the structure has come to be a symbol of resistance and solidarity for the LGBTQ community, which has fought for and won city, state, and federal recognition of the site.

Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument

In recognition of the violent and bloody history of the civil rights movement, the Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument was designated via the Antiquities Act in 2017. It recognizes four city blocks that were heavily associated with Martin Luther King Jr. and were pivotal for the civil rights movement in the 1960s. These blocks are the area where a violent confrontation between police and protesters, many of whom were children, played out in May 1963. The historical sites included within the monument are:

Freedom Riders National Monument

In 1961, an interracial group of “Freedom Riders” challenged discriminatory policies of segregation in bus stations by taking an integrated bus journey throughout the South. The purpose was to test if bus stations were complying with recent anti-segregation U.S. Supreme Court decisions including Brown v. Board of Education. The Freedom Riders persisted with their journey despite meeting racial violence throughout the trip including an attack by the KKK. The Freedom Riders brought widespread attention to the fight against segregation and inspired hundreds to join them to work towards integration.

African Burial Ground National Monument

In 1991, excavation of a piece of land in lower Manhattan  revealed the remains  of 421 freed and enslaved Africans who were buried with over 500 artifacts. It is considered one of the most important archaeological discoveries of the 20th century, and it was instrumental in understanding the history of Africans in New York City during the 17th-18th centuries. During that period, Africans  were prohibited  from being buried in church cemeteries in New York, and so the African community established their own separate place to bury and mourn their dead.

President George W. Bush established the national monument in 2006. The designation not only protects the archaeological site, but also establishes it as a place for education and reflection on the horrors of slavery and the treatment of African Americans throughout history.

César E. Chávez National Monument

The first cultural monument designated by President Obama, César E. Chávez National Monument honors Latino American history by showcasing the  home and workplace of César Chávez , who led the farm workers movement in the 1970s. The result of this movement was the passage of California's Agricultural Labor Relations Act of 1975, the first law in the U.S. that allowed farm workers to unionize.

The monument is located on  Nuestra Señora Reina de la Paz , the property that includes the home and workplace of the Chávez family, and a Memorial Garden where Chávez is buried. It was designated as a national monument in 2012 by President Obama, who  said in a statement  “La Paz was at the center of some of the most significant civil rights moments in our nation’s history, and by designating it a national monument, Chávez’ legacy will be preserved and shared to inspire generations to come.”

Honouliuli National Historic Site

Located on Oahu in Hawaii,  Honouliuli  was the site of one of  many prisons  used for  wrongful incarceration of Japanese Americans  during World War II. Like other Japanese prisons, most of the prisoners were American citizens unjustly suspected of disloyalty following the attacks on Pearl Harbor.  None of the nearly 2,000 people  of Japanese descent from Hawaii who were held there were found guilty of any crimes against the United States. 

Prisoners referred to the area as  “Jigoku-Dani” , which means “Hell Valley” in reference to the intense heat, isolation, and poor conditions. President Obama’s decision to use the Antiquities Act in 2015 to recognize Honouliuli is an important acknowledgment of this  dark chapter of American history , which is not always acknowledged. 

Belmont-Paul Women’s Equality National Monument

In Washington D.C., this  historic building  is the place where suffragette  Alice Paul  and the National Woman's Party fought for women’s rights for more than 90 years. President Obama designated it as a national monument by way of the Antiquities Act on  Equal Pay Day  in 2016, the day dedicated to bringing awareness to the wage gap between men and women.

“The Belmont-Paul Women’s Equality National Monument will honor and forever remind us of the risk, the work and the dedication of those who gathered in this house to fight for women’s equality,”  said Obama Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell  on the eve of the designation. The monument offers a place for reflection and education on the struggle for women’s rights, and the challenges women still face today.

Stonewall National Monument

The  Stonewall Inn  was the site of a milestone in the fight for LGBTQ civil rights and provided momentum for the movement that eventually led to the legalization of gay marriage. On  June 28, 1969 , an uprising began during a routine police raid on the “private” gay bar. The fight at the bar morphed into a multi-day protest and sparked a surge of activism for LGBTQ rights. The Stonewall Inn  still operates as a bar  today, and the structure has come to be a symbol of resistance and solidarity for the LGBTQ community, which has fought for and won  city, state, and federal recognition  of the site.

Those efforts culminated in President Obama using the Antiquities Act to designate the Stonewall National Monument, located  across the street  from the privately-owned and operated Stonewall Inn,  in 2016 .

Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument

In recognition of the violent and bloody history of the civil rights movement, the  Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument  was  designated via the Antiquities Act in 2017 . It recognizes four city blocks that were heavily associated with Martin Luther King Jr. and were pivotal for the civil rights movement in the 1960s. These blocks are the area where a violent  confrontation between police and protesters , many of whom were children, played out in May 1963. The historical sites included within the monument are:

Freedom Riders National Monument

In 1961, an interracial group of  “Freedom Riders”  challenged discriminatory policies of segregation in bus stations by taking an integrated bus journey throughout the South. The purpose was to test if bus stations were complying with recent anti-segregation U.S. Supreme Court decisions including Brown v. Board of Education. The Freedom Riders persisted with their journey despite meeting  racial violence throughout the trip  including an attack by the KKK. The Freedom Riders brought widespread attention to the fight against segregation and inspired hundreds to join them to work towards integration.

On January 12, 2017, President Obama designated the Freedom Riders National Monument at the  bus station in Anniston, Alabama , where the Freedom Riders were attacked by white segregationists who burned the bus.

President Biden's Turn to Make History

The creation of culturally-significant national monuments and historic sites using the Antiquities Act is now a well-established tradition, one that the Biden administration has ample opportunity to continue.

President Joe Biden has the opportunity to build on the legacy of George W. Bush and Barack Obama by protecting other sites that are important to America’s history. From Oklahoma to California, communities are calling on President Biden to protect and acknowledge important cultural and historical sites, such as Black Wall Street in Tulsa—where a thriving Black community was destroyed overnight by a white mob—and Friendship Park in San Diego—where family and friends separated by the U.S.-Mexico border have come to meet for decades.

Here are four proposed monuments the President Biden could designate using the Antiquities Act.

1

Cahokia Mounds: Proposed National Historical Park

Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site—located in southern Illinois just across the Mississippi River from St. Louis, Missouri—contains the remains of  one of the most sophisticated prehistoric native civilizations  in the modern day United States. The site once  encompassed 120 earthen mounds , now about 70, that composed an Indigenous city known today as Cahokia.

Cahokia  was the biggest and most influential city  built by the Mississippian culture, which developed advanced societies across much of what is now the Midwest and Southeast. Greater Cahokia was the largest city in North America for hundreds of years, with a population over 10,000 at its peak. The Mississippians established numerous satellite villages around Cahokia as well as a complex trading system that stretched from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico.

Cahokia is one of 24  UNESCO World Heritage Sites  within the United States and is the only such site in the Midwest. While Cahokia Mounds is protected by the state of Illinois, many Mississipian mounds lie outside the 2,200-acre state historic site. These mounds were used as foundations for buildings, as well as for burials and help tell the story of the Mississipians’ vast empire. Cahokia's development coincided with the development of the Chaco Canyon society in New Mexico, which was protected by an Antiquities Act designation  in 1907 

Cahokia Mounds was initially  protected by the state of Illinois in 1923 , when the state purchased the land from private owners. Later designation as a state historic site in 1975 offered additional protection, as did designation as a national historic landmark with a 4,100 acre boundary, in 1964 and a national register of historic places listing in 1966. Finally, in 1982, UNESCO designated Cahokia Mounds a World Heritage Site. Yet the mounds that lay outside the state historic site are still at risk of destruction. Over the last 250 years, countless mounds and sites have been destroyed in favor of development, including one mound  that was destroyed in 2010  during the relocation of a highway.

Since 2012, the southern Illinois nonprofit  Heartlands Conservancy  has led efforts to extend and strengthen protections for Cahokia Mounds by having it designated as a national historical park or national monument, which would encompass the state historic site as well as five satellite sites within 30 to 40 miles of it.

“It is such a sacred place, when you go there you feel the power of the land,” said Laura Lyon, Vice President of Program Strategy & Impact at Heartlands Conservancy. “It’s so welcoming and so emboldening to look across the landscape and see the spatial relationships between the mounds. It’s planetary. It's astronomical.”

Legislation for the Cahokia Mounds Mississippian Culture National Historical Park Act was introduced in 2019 and 2021 in the U.S.  House  and  Senate  to elevate the Cahokia Mounds Mississippian Culture to a national historical park. The designation would help tell a more complete story of Mississipian culture by creating a partnership park with the National Park Service, which would co-manage the park in collaboration with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. The two U.S. senators from Illinois, Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth,  are calling on President Biden  to use the Antiquities Act to make this a reality.  These efforts have the support of over ten Native American tribes with connections to the Mississipians, including the Absentee Shawnee Tribe, Cherokee Nation, Chickasaw Nation, Eastern Shawnee Tribe, Loyal Shawnee Culture, Miami Tribe, Osage Nation/Tribe, Ottawa Tribe, Peoria Tribe, Ponca Tribe, and Quapaw Tribe.

2

Black Wall Street: Proposed National Monument

In 1921, Greenwood was a modern and thriving neighborhood in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Often referred to as “Black Wall Street,”  its residents were wealthy and well-educated, and  shops, restaurants, cafes, and movie theaters lined the main street . Black Wall Street was the embodiment of Black excellence in the Jim Crow-era, proving Black people could be just as successful and prosperous as their white counterparts.

But it was completely destroyed in a single day on May 30, 1921 when a white mob stormed Greenwood, setting fire to buildings and killing hundreds of residents in what has come to be known as  the Tulsa Race Massacre . Twenty-four hours after the violence erupted, it ceased. In the wake of the violence,  35 city blocks lay in ruins and at least 36 people were reported dead . Historians now believe  as many as 100 to 300 people  may have died in the unprovoked attack. A 2001 state commission report shows that the financial toll of the attack  amounted to $1.8 million  in property loss, roughly equivalent to $27 million today.

Despite recent efforts to restore and rebuild Black Wall Street, North Tulsa, where Greenwood was located,  is still struggling to overcome  the violence and destruction perpetuated on the Black community there a century ago. The neighborhood still lacks basic services like grocery stores, resulting in massive health disparities between Black northside residents and their white counterparts across the tracks. That’s a major reason why the life expectancy of a Black child in the neighborhood where Greenwood once stood  is over 10 years less  than that of a white child living in Tulsa’s southside.

Now, Black Tulsans are asking President Biden to acknowledge the history of the Tulsa Race Massacre —as well as the prosperity it destroyed— by using the Antiquities Act to designate Black Wall Street a national monument . A national monument designation would help shine a light on this history after the story of the massacre  was actively hidden for over a century. 

“Each of us should learn the hard lessons of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre and the continued harm shouldered by the survivors, the descendants, and the neighborhood of Greenwood,”  said Dr. Tiffany Crutcher , whose grandmother survived the attack. “The President must begin work to designate Black Wall Street a national monument so we can always remember the history of this place and educate generations to come."

3

Springfield Race Riot: Proposed National Monument

In 1908 in Springfield, Illinois, a white mob attacked and burned down black neighborhoods in Springfield in response to a  false rape charge  against two Black men. The violence lasted for 48 hours, ending with two black community members being lynched. These events influenced the creation of the  National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)  to fight against racial discrimination. This horrific piece of history is a critical part of the civil rights movement and Black history and should be recognized and protected as such. 

There is already widespread community support to honor the area as a national monument, and a  plan for what the proposed monument would include . In 2019, Illinois Senators Tammy Duckworth and Dick Durbin  introduced a bill  to do just this and then  reintroduced the bill  in 2021. The bill is also  supported by Representative Rodney Davis , giving it both bipartisan and bicameral support. However, congressional gridlock is preventing the bill from making any progress, which is why advocates from the  Sierra Club and the NAACP , along with Senators Duckworth and Durbin, are pressing President Biden to use the Antiquities Act to establish the Springfield Race Massacre Site as a national monument. The proposed monument is in an area that includes an  archaeological site with the foundations of buildings  that were burned down in the riot.

“Establishing the 1908 Springfield Race Riot National Monument would represent long-overdue progress in making sure the National Parks System properly memorializes the historic events of the African-American civil rights movement,” the senators wrote  in a letter  to President Biden. “The NAACP was instrumental in pushing our nation forward to form a perfect union by helping establish justice and working to secure the blessings of liberty for Black Americans.”

The role that the Springfield Race Riot played in the history of racism and civil rights in America makes it worthy of the national monument designation. It would be a step toward acknowledging the complete history of the United States, which does include violent and unjust events like the Springfield Race Riot. The site was added to the  African American Civil Rights Network  in 2020 after evaluation by the National Park Service deemed it worthy of recognition.

In an article for  Sierra Magazine , Teresa Haley of the NAACP and Chris Hill of the Sierra Club argue for a monument designation of this site as a way to tell American history:

“The fact is that without Black history, there is no American history. Black folks have fought, bled, and died to advance to the levels we have, and while we’ve come a long way, there is still a long way to go. This proposed monument would remind Americans of this trajectory: from one of the lowest points in our history, to the creation of one of the oldest and largest civil rights organizations in this country, to the America that we witness today, and to the hopefully equitable and just America of the future.”

4

Friendship Park: Proposed National Monument

Located on the beach between San Diego, CA and Tijuana, Mexico, Friendship Park is bisected by the international border wall. It is also a part of Border Field State Park and the Transborder Tijuana River Delta, and the Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve is located nearby. It is a  critical site for cultural connectivity  between the U.S. and Mexico, and is the only way for some people to see their families across the border. Transborder events and rallies are common at Friendship Park, including Sunday Mass, concerts, and yoga classes.

The park was first established in 1971, and at the opening ceremony First Lady Patricia Nixon  pronounced , “I hope there won't be a fence too long here.”

Unfortunately, the neighborly community-focused culture of the park is threatened by increased border security and  construction on the border wall . Increased border patrol presence creates an unwelcoming and threatening environment for some Latino park visitors, while construction on the wall threatens the coastal ecosystem. The U.S. side of the park has been closed entirely to the public since February 2020.

With the park’s association with First Lady Nixon and its importance to the Latino community, it is eligible for cultural heritage protection within the National Park Service. Protecting this area as a National Historic Landmark and reopening it to public access would be a major recognition of Latino culture and community, and would honor the ties between the U.S. and Mexico.

President Biden is already off to a good start: in 2021, he restored Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments, which were illegally gutted by the Trump administration. And in 2022 used the Antiquities Act to protect Colorado's Camp Hale, a WWII high alpine training camp, as Camp Hale-Continental Divide National Monument.

President Biden should listen to the communities calling on him to acknowledge the importance of events like the Springfield Race Riot and places like Cahokia Mounds. Traditional, less comprehensive perspectives on American history are being justifiably scrutinized right now and new more inclusive narratives about what it means to be an American are forming. President Biden can have a hand in shaping this conversation as well as how we understand our shared history by elevating the stories of Black, Latino, and Indigneous Americans through the creation of these new national monuments.